Can't

How to spell can't

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce can't

What does can't mean?

1. verbThe contracted form of 'cannot', expressing inability or impossibility.

Can't in a sentence

• I can't open this jar no matter how hard I try.

• We can't afford a new car until next year.

Where does can't come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a contraction of 'cannot', and its first element goes back to the Old English verb cunnan, which originally meant 'to know' or 'to know how to do something' rather than simply 'to be able'. Over the medieval period the sense of knowing how to do a thing slid naturally into the sense of having the power or ability to do it, which is the meaning 'can' carries today; the same root survives in 'cunning' and in 'ken', meaning knowledge or range of sight. The negative 'cannot' was written as a single word, and from around the 1600s spoken English began to slur it into 'can't', with the apostrophe inserted to show that the letters 'no' had been swallowed. That apostrophe is the whole spelling trap: it stands in for the missing letters, so it must sit between the 'n' and the 't', never before the 'n'. Writing 'cant' by mistake produces a real but unrelated word meaning insincere or hypocritical talk, which is why the mark matters.

How the word is built

• can (Old English cunnan: to know how, to be able)
• n't (reduced form of 'not', the apostrophe marking the dropped letters)

Words that sound like can't

They sound the same but mean different things, so the meaning decides which spelling to write.

• cant: Hypocritical or sanctimonious language, or the private jargon of a particular group.