canとは

発音

• (強勢)
  • enPR: kăn
  • (Received 発音, Ireland) IPA^(key): /kæn/, [kʰan~kʰæn]
  • (General American, Canada) IPA^(key): /kæn/, [kʰæn~kʰɛən~kʰeən]
  • Rhymes: -æn
• (弱勢)
  • IPA^(key): /kən/, [kʰən], [kʰn̩]

動詞

can (third-person singular simple present can, present participle -, simple past could, past participle (廃れた用法 except in adjectival use) couth)

1. (auxiliary verb, defective) To know how to; to be able to.

   She can speak English, French, and German.   I can play football.   Can you remember your fifth birthday?

   • (Can we date this quote?) Reginald Pecock

     Clerks which can write books.

   • 2013 July-August, Lee S. Langston, “The Adaptable Gas Turbine”, in American Scientist:

     Turbines have been around for a long time—windmills and water wheels are early examples. The name comes from the Latin turbo, meaning vortex, and thus the defining property of a turbine is that a fluid or gas turns the blades of a rotor, which is attached to a shaft that can perform useful work.

2. (modal auxiliary verb, defective, informal) May; to be permitted or enabled to.

   You can go outside and play when you're finished with your homework.   Can I use your pen?

3. (modal auxiliary verb, defective) To have the potential to; be possible.

   Can it be Friday already?

   Teenagers can really try their parents' patience.

   Animals can experience emotions.

   • 1922, Ben Travers, chapter 5, in A Cuckoo in the Nest:

     The most rapid and most seductive transition in all human nature is that which attends the palliation of a ravenous appetite. […] Can those harmless but refined fellow-diners be the selfish cads whose gluttony and personal appearance so raised your contemptuous wrath on your arrival?

   • 2009, Annette Sym, Simply Too Good to be True, Greenleaf Book Group (→ISBN), page 4:

     Teenagers can be so cruel, and nicknames cut deep.

4. (auxiliary verb, defective) Used with verbs of perception.

   Can you hear that?.

   I can feel the baby moving inside me.

5. (obsolete, transitive) To know.
   • ca.1360-1387, William Langland, Piers Plowman

     I can rimes of Robin Hood.

   • ca.1360-1387, William Langland, Piers Plowman

     I can no Latin, quod she.

   • (Can we date this quote?) William Shakespeare

     Let the priest in surplice white, / That defunctive music can.

使用する際の注意点

• For missing forms, substitute inflected forms of be able to, as:
  • I might be able to go.
  • I was able to go yesterday.
  • I have been able to go, since I was seven.
  • I had been able to go before.
  • I will be able to go tomorrow.
• The word could also suffices in many tenses. “I would be able to go” is equivalent to “I could go”, and “I was unable to go” can be rendered “I could not go”. (Unless there is a clear indication otherwise, “could verb” means “would be able to verb”, but “could not verb” means “was/were unable to verb”.)
• The present tense negative can not is usually contracted to cannot (more formal) or can’t (less formal).
• The use of can in asking permission sometimes is criticized as being impolite or incorrect by those who favour the more formal alternative “may I...?”.
• Can is sometimes used rhetorically to issue a command, placing the command in the form of a request. For instance, “Can you hand me that pen?” as a polite substitution for “Hand me that pen.”
• Some US dialects that glottalize the final /t/ in can’t (/kæn(ʔ)/), in order to differentiate can’t from can, pronounce can as /kɛn/ even when stressed.

同意語

• be able to
• may

反意語

• cannot
• can’t

参考

• Appendix:English modal verbs
• Appendix:English tag questions

語源 2

From Middle English canne, from 古期英語 canne (“glass, container, cup, can”), from Proto-Germanic *kannǭ (“can, tankard, mug, cup”), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *gan-, *gandʰ- (“a vessel”). Cognate with Scots can (“can”), West Frisian kanne (“a jug, pitcher”), Dutch kan (“pot, mug”), German Kanne (“can, tankard, mug”), Danish kande (“can, mug, a measure”), Swedish kanna (“can, tankard, mug”), Icelandic kanna (“a can”).

発音

• (Received 発音, General American) enPR: kăn, IPA^(key): /kæn/
  • Rhymes: -æn
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /kæːn/
  • Rhymes: -æːn
• (æ-tensing) IPA^(key): [keən]

名詞

a can (3)

can (複数形 cans)

1. A more or less cylindrical vessel for liquids, usually of steel or aluminium, but sometimes of plastic, and with a carrying handle over the top.
2. A container used to carry and dispense water for plants (a watering can).
3. A tin-plate canister, often cylindrical, for preserved foods such as fruit, meat, or fish.
4. (archaic) A chamber pot, now (US, slang) a toilet or lavatory.

   Shit or get off the can.

   Bob's in the can. You can wait a few minutes or just leave it with me.

5. (US, slang) Buttocks.
6. (slang) Jail or prison.

   Bob's in the can. He won't be back for a few years.

7. (slang, 複数形) Headphones.
8. (archaic) A drinking cup.
   • Shakespeare, Twelfth Night II.iii

     SIR ANDREW: Nay, my troth, I know not: but I know, to be up late is to be up late.

     SIR TOBY: A false conclusion: I hate it as an unfilled can.

   • Tennyson

     Fill the cup and fill the can, / Have a rouse before the morn.

9. (nautical) A cube-shaped buoy or marker used to denote a port-side lateral mark
10. A chimney pot.

同意語

• (toilet): See Thesaurus:chamber pot and Thesaurus:toilet
• (place with a toilet): See Thesaurus:bathroom
• (cylindrical metal container): tin (英国用法 & Australian at least)

下位語

派生語

• kick-the-can
• shitcan

関連する語

動詞

can (三人称単数 現在形 cans, 現在分詞 canning, 過去形および過去分詞形 canned)

1. To seal in a can.

   They canned air to sell as a novelty to tourists.

2. To preserve by heating and sealing in a jar or can.

   They spent August canning fruit and vegetables.

3. To discard, scrap or terminate (an idea, project, etc.).

   He canned the whole project because he thought it would fail.

4. To shut up.

   Can your gob.

5. (US, euphemistic) To fire or dismiss an employee.

   The boss canned him for speaking out.

派生語

• decan, recan, uncan

アナグラム

• ANC, CNA, NAC, NCA

別の表記

• Can

アナグラム

• ANC
• CNA
• NCA