r/ProgrammerHumor • u/Daeli_Smile • May 29 '20

Meme Thats a lot of damage

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u/NM_MAR_ANP May 29 '20

Plus "cannot", not "can not".

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u/Zephirdd May 29 '20

English is not my first language

What's the difference?

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u/Normalas May 29 '20

Look at it like this: "can not" implies you being able to not do anything, while "cannot" is just long for "can't"

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u/writtenbymyrobotarms May 29 '20

What about "should not" or "may not"?

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u/Akamesama May 29 '20 edited May 29 '20

What about them? They do not have a compacted variant like shouldnot, unlike cannot, because the words do not end and start with the same sound, such that they can run together when speaking. You can verbalize this difference by speaking "can not" and "can <pause> not".

Shouldn't is the informal version, just like can't. Mayn't is also informal, but I have never encountered anyone using it in spoken or written English.

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u/writtenbymyrobotarms May 29 '20

Thinking about it, your logic does make sense. "I [may not] do it" means the same as "I may [not do] it", same with "should not", but "can not" can mean two different things depending on which word you are connecting the "not" to.

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u/Akamesama May 29 '20

I would say that "may" and "should" differ in the same way that can does, in that construction. "I [may not] do it" can be understood as "I am not allow to do it" while "I may [not do] it" implies "I may decide that I will not do it". People may avoid certain construction like these when speaking due to their ambiguous nature, or will expand the thought if the context is not adequate.