Verb + negative

Question

Is there a time when "can not" is proper rather than "cannot"????? Thanks.

Philip · Accepted Answer

It's my understanding that can not is not correct. Who made that rule is unknown to me, and no friend of mine.

CalifJim · Answer

When the negation applies to what follows, "can not" is appropriate:
You can not show up if you really don't want to go. [You may choose not to show up ...]
____
Sometimes people use "can not" when they want to emphasize the negation:
You can NOT put the cat in the microwave!!
____
You will find "can not" in older writing as well. But the historical tendency seems to have been toward "cannot", so that now "cannot" is used almost all the time.

CJ

Anonymous · Answer

You might want to look at some of the examples here?

http://www.EnglishForward.com/English/x3.asp?w11=canamp;w12=notamp;r=

http://www.EnglishForward.com/English/x3.asp?w11=canamp;w12=notamp;

http://corpus.byu.edu/bnc/x.asp

CalifJim · Answer

Yup. And another 84,000,000+ on Google.
CJ

Yankee · Answer

Anonymoushttp://www.EnglishForward.com/English/x3.asp?w11=canamp;w12=notamp;r= http://www.EnglishForward.com/English/x3.asp?w11=canamp;w12=notamp;

How do you explain the fact that the results of a search for "can not" turn up as "cannot" here, Anon?
http://sara.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/saraWeb?qy=can+not

(And haven't we been through all this with you at least once before?)

Verb + negative

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