When to use "cannot" versus "can't"?
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Chapters
00:00 When To Use &Quot;Cannot&Quot; Versus &Quot;Can'T&Quot;?
00:14 Accepted Answer Score 43
01:03 Thank you
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#differences #negation #contractions #modalverbs
#avk47
Hire the world's top talent on demand or became one of them at Toptal: https://topt.al/25cXVn
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--------------------------------------------------
Music by Eric Matyas
https://www.soundimage.org
Track title: Future Grid Looping
--
Chapters
00:00 When To Use &Quot;Cannot&Quot; Versus &Quot;Can'T&Quot;?
00:14 Accepted Answer Score 43
01:03 Thank you
--
Full question
https://english.stackexchange.com/questi...
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Content licensed under CC BY-SA
https://meta.stackexchange.com/help/lice...
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Tags
#differences #negation #contractions #modalverbs
#avk47
ACCEPTED ANSWER
Score 43
Grammatically, you can use can't instead of can not or cannot in the majority of circumstances. There is an exception. In wh-movement, the contraction should not be expanded unless you also change the word order:
Why can't I have some bacon? //OK
Why cannot I have some bacon? //not OK, archaic
Why can I not have some bacon? //OK again, although formal
Stylistically, the choice between can't and cannot is more complex. Generally, people use can't in speech and informal writing, and cannot or can not in formal writing or very formal speech. Also (as @Kris points out in a comment), cannot might be used when you need to carefully distinguish it from can't in speech.