Cannot cannot be can not -- or can it?

Most people will tell you that you must use the one-word version of "cannot." If you split it up, they think you are an idiot. However, those people are mistaking a style choice for a rule violation.

"Can" is a word. "Not" is a word. They can appear together in a sentence as separate words without violating any rule of English -- except style. That means you have a choice.

Those people who think that you are an idiot for using "can not" will tell you that the dictionary lists "cannot" but it doesn't list "can not."

There is a good reason for that. Most dictionaries do not list "can not" because it is a phrase, not a word. That is why you can not find "do not," "should not," "will not," and other similar phrases in the average dictionary.

But you can save yourself a lot of arguments by avoiding "can not" whenever you can. People will think that you are poorly educated if you use it. They won't listen to your arguments that it is they, in fact, who are poorly educated.

I will give you two good reasons why you should use "can not" at least once in a while.

You can use it for extra emphasis as in: "You can not chop off my head." That sounds slightly stronger than "You cannot chop off my head." And if you bold or italicize the "not," it creates this even stronger sentence: "You can not chop off my head."

The second reason is because of a slightly unusual sentence structure like this: "You can, not only buy me a beer, but also a pretzel." The English geeks will eventually concede the argument on this type of a sentence, but they won't budge on any other point.

So if you like to argue, use the two-word version, but if you like peace and quiet, stick to the one-worder whenever you can. You can not go wrong.
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Sir Chelf the Search Elf searches the Internet for your amusement.
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