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Peter Ki asks:
What is the difference between ‘can not’ and ‘cannot’?
Although my personal Error Alarm buzzes whenever I see cannot written as two words, both forms are acceptable usage.
Merriam-Webster lists cannot as one word. If you try looking up “can not” in the online unabridged, you will be sent to a list of suggestions headed by cannot.
According to the entry in the OED, cannot is
the ordinary modern way of writing can not
The historical illustrations given for the negative in the OED shows cannot, can not, and even canot, as well as the contraction can’t:
?a1400 Cursor M. (add. to Cott.) p. 959. 105 And ou at he deed fore cannot sorus be. 1451 Paston Lett. 140 I. 186 Other tydyngs as yett can I non tell you. Ibid. 172 I. 229 Whethir it be thus or non I can not say. 15.. Plumpton Corr. 72, I canot get my money. 1706 Col. Records Penn. II. 256 The House cant agree to this. 1741 RICHARDSON Pamela I. 56 If he..as you say can’t help it. 1742 YOUNG Nt. Th. I. 89 An angel’s arm can’t snatch me from the grave; Legions of angels can’t confine me there. 1827 KEBLE Chr. Y. 4 Without Thee I cannot live. Mod. Can’t you go?
The experts at AskOxford seem to prefer cannot:
Both cannot and can not are acceptable spellings, but the first is much more usual. You would use can not when the ‘not’ forms part of another construction such as ‘not only.’
The Washington State University language site says:
These two spellings [cannot/can not] are largely interchangeable, but by far the most common is “cannot” and you should probably use it except when you want to be emphatic: “No, you can not wash the dog in the Maytag.”
Bottom line
There’s no difference in meaning between cannot and can not.
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I was taught “cannot” so anything else looks wrong to me!
There is one use where can not works better than cannot.
One of emphasis.
Say, you’re having an argument.
“You can NOT be serious!”
For example.
“You cannot be serious!” is weaker. Lacks emphasis on the not. And canNOT doesn’t take into account the pause between can and NOT. (or indeed, look right)
It isn’t just for emphatic purposes. Some people (especially in philosophy or such fields) use the two to mean slightly different things as shown below:
I cannot eat: I am not able to eat
I can not eat: I am able not to eat
Obviously, the use is somewhat limited, but it is very helpful.
Please do not make pronouncements on subjects or topics that you are not reallhy qualified to judge.
“Cannot” is unequivocal: it means you do not have a choice; something you cannot do is not something you “can” or “can not” do. It means that you are not able to do that thing.
You “can” or “can not” take the dog for a walk, depending on your mood. If you are confined to bed with a broken leg, however, you “cannot” take the dog for a walk, regardless of your mood.
John,
I suppose I’m as qualified as anyone to quote the authorities at Merriam-Webster, the OED, or Washington State University.
Personally, I can’t see any reason to spell “cannot” as two words other than in a context in which the “not” belongs to another word group, such as “He can not only sing, but also dance.”
I’d be interested to know the authoritative reference source on which you base your own distinction between “cannot” and “can not.”
How restrained of you, Maeve. I’d have been tempted to tell him not to make pronouncements on subjects or topics without proofreading them first. Reallhy!
While I understand the confusion, since most English teachers seem to promote an either-or approach to this question (while differing on which version is right), I’m dismayed that people seriously considering the issue continue to be confused. Clearly they mean different things.
Cannot means just that: a thing cannot be. For example, I cannot wave a magic wand and make my dog turn into a cat.
Can not means it can be, or can not be. You can be right, or you can not be right. Using the past or hypothetical version of can makes the rightness of this difference blindingly obvious. For example, I could not write this if I so chose. You could agree, or could not agree, as you think best.
If something were to be deprecated, it might be cannot, since you can’t legitimately write couldnot of the past, only could not. But they’ve both been around a long time, and I think the language is enriched by accepting both in their separate contexts.
To be clear, it would be preferable in my opinion to refrain from using “can not” to describe the ability to “choose not to” do something. Rather, in most cases of formal writing, it would be much clearer to rephrase this. For example, it would be better to say “I can eat or choose not to eat” rather than to say “I can eat or I can not eat”; or “Not only can I sing, but I can also play guitar” rather than “I can not only sing, but also play guitar.”
One of the main reasons for this is how the two phrases sound when spoken aloud or to oneself. To hear the words “can not” together, it is hard to completely avoid the tendency to hear “cannot”, and thus give some of our cognition over to the possibility that the speaker “cannot” do something. Ultimately this is a barrier to communication, rather than a facilitator.
Moreover, on a syntactical level I find it preferable to have consistent rules as a foundation of language, and the “cannot” rule lacks this consistency. Although I do find it preferable to use “cannot,” to “can not” I would hesitate to insist that they absolutely mean different things or that one is always preferable. Where are the words willnot, shallnot or doesnot, couldnot, shouldnot, etc. to fill the same purpose prescribed by this rule? Since these words do not exist (except in their contraction form), this inconsistency provides little rationale for a strict adherence to the “cannot” form, in my opinion.
based on your comments, etc.:
“cannot” is like “wish”
and
“can not” is like “hope”
agree?
I’m still confused. I am taking an online text editing course, and based on the book “The Gregg Reference Manual: A Manual of Style, Grammar, Usage, and Formatting” required for the course, I have no idea which one to use. Both usages are confusing in the book and on the net.
For example, in a sentence “Tom says that he can not bear to listen any more.”
Which is appropriate to use? Cannot or Can not?
By searching the net and also reviewing comments on this site, I am choosing to use “can not”.
Another example, “that can not be true” I am choosing to use “can not” as well.
I have to turn this work in tomorrow morning, but I would like to know what way would be more appropriate.
Thanks
Laura,
This is pretty simple, really. If in spoken English you might find yourself saying “can’t”, then in formal English it is generally safer and more acceptable to write “cannot”; some style guide say that it is the only right way, and others would say that is acceptable either way, but it would not be wrong to use “cannot”, so you should use this.
The only other usage of “can not” would closer in meaning to “may not” or “might not”. For example, “Joe can go to the party or he can not go to the party, the choice is up to him”. This is the only case where it would be incorrect to use “cannot”, because you aren’t trying to say that he does not have the ability to to go to the party, you are just saying that he “can” choose “not” to go to the party. I typically choose to avoid this kind of sentence construction anyway because, as I stated above, listeners are likely to be subtly confused by it, and at a subconscious level may have doubts about the actual meaning of the sentence. I would instead say something like “Joe can choose to go to the party or not to go, the choice is up to him.” This is clearer and avoids the dilemma.
Hope this helps you in your paper and in your understanding.