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This came up today because I couldn't determine if "handwriting" should be written as "hand writing" or "handwriting". I know now it's "handwriting". I also forgot that "cannot" shouldn't be written as "can not". What's the rule for compound words? How can I know when something should be a closed compound or not?

Daniel Ward
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    A dictionary is always helpful. – Greybeard Aug 02 '22 at 23:43
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    There is no such general rule. You can use "book shop" or "bookshop". – Peter Aug 03 '22 at 01:26
  • Isn't there a canonical question for this? Related (2020): Is there a general rule for the usage of hyphens in compound words? – Peter Mortensen Aug 06 '22 at 11:01
  • No, I'm not talking about hyphens here. I'm asking if there is a spelling rule that might help me remember that cannot is not spelled can not. Why do we do that? – Daniel Ward Aug 08 '22 at 23:44
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    There is a specific question here about cannot, which is slightly unusual. There isn't a general rule: words are normally hyphenated or written with spaces if they are less common compounds, but become closed (like chickpea) if they are more popular, although hyphens can be used to avoid ambiguity or to avoid very long words. Dictionaries have different opinions, but you can consult them. If you are writing to a style guide, it may specify which dictionary to use. English has no set rules. – Stuart F Aug 09 '22 at 11:12
  • Ok, I can understand that. Thank you I'll add, that I teach ESL and one thing I know is that British English tends to use more hyphens whereas American English tried to do away with them as much as possible. I think I recall seeing some hyphens rules for British English, but I didn't dig any further because I focus on American English. – Daniel Ward Aug 09 '22 at 23:38

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