Comments on: Cannot or Can Not?

By: BP

BP — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:43:07 +0000

I simply can NOT believe you all have time to debate this!

By: Paul

Paul — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:01:50 +0000

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.

By: Laura

Laura — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 02:14:03 +0000

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

By: edgy

edgy — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 01:05:19 +0000

based on your comments, etc.:

“cannot” is like “wish”

and

“can not” is like “hope”

agree?

By: Paul

Paul — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 20:51:42 +0000

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.