cant
part of speech
noun (uncountable); verb (cant, cants, canted, canting — rare); also a common misspelling of "can't"
meaning for a pupil
1) Often a misspelling of "can't" (cannot) when the apostrophe is left out, as in texts and fast typing. tree →
2) (formal) Insincere talk about morals or religion; hypocritical words. tree →
3) (old) Special words used by a group, such as thieves; jargon. tree →
4) (verb or noun) A slope or tilt. tree →
sense in the lessons
Pupils mostly meet "cant" as "can't" written without the apostrophe in real speech texts: "i cant come". The real word "cant" is rare and formal. Phrases: can't (cannot).
examples
- (text) Sorry, I cant come to the party. tree →
- (correct) I can't find my shoes. tree →
- The speech was full of empty cant. tree →
- Thieves' cant was a secret language. tree →
- The table has a slight cant to one side. tree →
- (text) cant wait 4 the holidays! tree →
note
In school writing always write "can't" with an apostrophe, or "cannot". Without the apostrophe it is a different, rare word. Pronunciation of can't: "kahnt" (UK, Australia) or "kant" (USA). In maths, "can't" is a negative: "can't share equally" means there is a remainder.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «cant» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.