A Way with Words A Way with Words

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Cannot
2012/08/02
5:35am
Raffee
Iran
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Is there a particular reason that we should write 'cannot, and not 'can not'?

This may be one of those hope-not-to-have-gotten-pedantic questions!

2012/08/02
7:53am
Grant Barrett
San Diego, California
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It's just a matter of style and usage habits rather than any particular thing ordained by the syntax or orthography of the language. Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage has a good entry about it.

2012/08/02
9:54am
Bob Bridges
USA
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Actually it can make a difference.  If I write "I can not do that", I may mean that I am unable to do it, or that I am able to not do it.  So I (with my habitual horror of ambivalence) always use "cannot" when I mean the former.

2012/08/02
11:51am
Ron Draney
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It's probably connected with the inconsistency in indefinite pronouns:

everything, anything, something, nothing
everybody, anybody, somebody, nobody
everyone, anyone, someone, no one

Why is no one the only one that can't be a single word?

2012/08/02
1:36pm
Dick
Fort Worth, TX
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Ron Draney said

Why is no one the only one that can't be a single word?

I have wondered that my self many times.  The only answer I ever got was that it would look like noon and cause a pause in reading.  It makes sense but I don't know if that was the original reason.

2012/08/02
8:31pm
Ron Draney
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I once posted in response to a newsgroup message where someone had spelled noone as a single word, advising "I'm telling you now, while it may not be a must to avoid, something tells me you're not into something good".

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