One word? Two words? Have you lost precious minutes wondering about cannot and can not? If so, you're not alone.
Solution
Both cannot and can not are correct. However, cannot is the far more common spelling. We recommend the following guidelines:
most common meanings for the verbs flounder and founder
USE CANNOT
USE CAN NOT
when you mean be unable to:
The parties cannot (are unable to) agree.
Erica cannot (is unable to) play at the jazz festival.
when you want to give greater emphasis to the word not:
Joe: I can speak Italian better than you can.
Bridget: You can not!
when a choice is involved:
He can go, or he can not go.
OR
He can go or not.
when the word not is part of the correlative conjunction not only…but also:
We can not only meet for dinner but also see a movie.
Linguistic Recommendation reference number
REM-17/2009-10
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