And canNOT doesn’t take into account the pause between can and NOT. There is one use where can not works better than cannot. I was taught “cannot” so anything else looks wrong to me!

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Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Spelling category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below: There’s no difference in meaning between cannot and can not. These two spellings 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.”

The Washington State University language site says: You would use can not when the ‘not’ forms part of another construction such as ‘not only.’ The experts at AskOxford seem to prefer cannot:īoth cannot and can not are acceptable spellings, but the first is much more usual. 89 An angel’s arm can’t snatch me from the grave Legions of angels can’t confine me there. 229 Whethir it be thus or non I can not say. 186 Other tydyngs as yett can I non tell you. 105 And ou at he deed fore cannot sorus be. The historical illustrations given for the negative in the OED shows cannot, can not, and even canot, as well as the contraction can’t:

The ordinary modern way of writing can not If you try looking up “can not” in the online unabridged, you will be sent to a list of suggestions headed by cannot.Īccording to the entry in the OED, cannot is Merriam-Webster lists cannot as one word. What is the difference between ‘can not’ and ‘cannot’?Īlthough my personal Error Alarm buzzes whenever I see cannot written as two words, both forms are acceptable usage.

Is cannot one word or two words