Natasha Dupuy wrote:
Dear colleagues,
A client of mine has just sent me a comment that has left me quite bewildered, so I'd like your opinion on the matter if you'd care to share it.
In a document destined for a global English-speaking audience, I wrote: "Because you can't trust anybody".
I used the contraction because I felt it was appropriate given the context and tone of the document.
The customer changed my "can't" to "can not" and added the following comment: "avoid using the apostrophe to express the 'not', as this is widely used in British English but very little elsewhere and is not always understood by Americans."
The person who wrote this comment is based in Canada.
Now as far as English-speaking countries go, I've lived in Australia, England and Canada, and I have to say it's the first time I have ever heard this.
So my question is: would you say this is true?
This is an absurd comment by the person based in Canada. Note, however, that it was the customer who changed it, and you may not even know who the final customer is. But in any case, "cannot" is a single word. If the customer thinks "can not" is better than "can't", there is little you can do about it. Send the customer a link to an online dictionary.
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