Cannot or can not?

They must have taught it to me there.

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English Teacher in Taiwan of the year. No, of the decade!

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I give you credit for this post.

Ahem! I shall thank my family, my teacher, and my friends … :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

You should, it’s mine.

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Cannot is used in writing all the time.

I was not attributing the logic directly to you…You are simply saying this is how it is used according to convention and standard usage etc. I am saying, using my own logic, that there are no circumstances in writing that you could not replace “cannot” with “can not” and it will make no difference in understanding what is being said. Even though it is used as a device to distinguish differences in meaning. Example: “What did he say to you?”. He said “you cannot do it”. He told you that you could not do it? The logic should extend to could, no?

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The answer (maybe)

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I couldn’t believe what a monumental clusterfuck this is turning into.

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I think you mean “cluster fuck” and “in to”.

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Ok, I’m on my way to get better glasses :nerd_face:

Again, you’re free to write and pron ounce it how ever you want, even if it’s non stan dard. If you also want to apply this to “couldnot” and “mustnot” etc., go a head. :slight_smile:

I’m not inter ested in having a de bate about the logic of the stan dard usage and how it relates to other words - I didn’t invent the stan dard usage and haven’t claimed that any logic exists.

Maybe someone could post the Grammarly link for a fourth time to clear things up?

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Well I have a theory for this. Again, not all theories can be proven. How often when we say “could not” when we mean “can not”? Could has another meaning other than the mere past tens of can. When we use words like could, would, should, we’re trying to be polite. And therefore they wouldn’t create such a strong tone. Personally I’ve hear of much more “ I can not help” than “I could (pause) not help”. Now when we try to tell people I have the option to not help you, we’d try to give a strong impression. We don’t even really say “could not” in real life. The could not/couldn’t ratio, IMO, is so much lower than that of (cannot+can not)/can’t.

Of course this could all be jibber jabber but it’s still fun to discuss. If you think there should be both “could not” and “couldnot”, feel free to promote it. I mean, if long time no see is a thing, why can’t “couldnot” be one. Though I’d doubt that would get popular since there isn’t any inconvenience with a simple “couldn’t”.

Now I thought of another why.

There are isn’t wasn’t aren’t weren’t, but why not amn’t?

There’s ain’t.
And it basically works for everything.
I would really like to just teach “ain’t” to my students and forget about the rest.:stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Or whn’t? Over time there probably will be.

Is it ok I use ain’t instead of isn’t etc?