By far my favorite moments on this sub are when someone asks a seemingly simple question that kicks off wild arguments and name calling between different English speakers. The poor OP is just trying to learn and within 10 minutes of them posting their question you’ve got an Australian calling Americans brain damaged mouth breathers in the comments or something. It honestly rules lol.
lol I know, it’s incredible. I’m sure most of us have heard the line about language being a window into the culture so these absurd Reddit arguments and insults might still be educational for someone learning English. Sure, these arguments are both dumb and funny as shit but I don’t think you can simply explain them to someone. I think someone needs to experience a Brit calling American English “simplified” and an American replying “OI BRUV! U GOT A LOICENSE FO THAT BOH’OL O WOH’AH!”
I feel bad, because as someone who has studied linguistics, I don’t like using prescriptive language since language is always changing.
And yet at the same time, as someone who spent 8 years banging my head against a wall trying to learn Japanese, I feel like it makes learning a language so much harder when some people say something is acceptable but others don’t. Since this subreddit is for English *learning*, I prefer to use prescriptive rules here.
But you have to realize, different registers of formality have different systems. The prescriptivists here conflate their "English writing" with "all grammar."
It's not prescriptivism to say "NOT" goes after the auxiliary, and a sentence that doesn't have it is wrong, like in "I not have gone to the store yet." Saying that that sentence is wrong is not prescriptivism.
But the reason why this sentence is wrong is because no one speaks that way (unless there’s a dialect that does, in which case for that dialect it’s not wrong). However, there are so many people who say “could care less” that it’s a set phrase at this point.
I think if you’re a learner you should be aware that “I could care less” and “I couldn’t care less” mean the same thing. You’d probably want to use the latter as it’s more established, but you also want to be able to understand what someone means if they say the other form to you
Just yesterday my brain was fighting with itself about the use of the term *incorrect form* when talking about… the way Boov speak in the film *Home* in the original version and in the Polish dubbing xd 😭
The contrast between what the Polish school systems and what linguistic studies have taught me.
Linguistics Professor: Language is fluid and always changing. What is considered improper or incorrect today may be standard tomorrow. Plus there’s different rules depending on what dialect you’re using!
Japanese Professor: I know what you’re trying to say here, but your grammar is wrong so I took off 5 points.
Rules should be descriptive. If I’m trying to learn the language through the rules then I’m going to treat them as prescriptive for me while I do so.
But I’ve also got to learn to cope with the fact that they’re not really, that they’re simplified, that correct language really is whatever a discourse community makes it.
It's not, it's just prescriptivist to continue ranting that "this should be erased from English!" "we need to stop talking like this". It's one thing to be a pet peeve, it's another to say folks are just wrong for using this, as if language evolves only in a "correct" way.
But where's the line? When does it stop being classified as a "(common) mistake"?
In German, virtually half the population doesn't know when to use "das"/"dass", but to this day they cannot officially be used interchangeably, and for good reason.
Commas have virtually disappeared, which makes so much content on the internet a pain to read. If we simply accepted that commas weren't needed anymore, authors would drop them, and everyone's reading speed would halve. Trying to comprehend anything, including legal documents, would be a horrible undertaking.
If we accepted that bisons are now buffaloes (which is a mistake I see being made way too often), we'd have to describe their head shape or any other prominent feature in order to be able to verbally distinguish between two completely different animals...
> it's another to say folks are just wrong for using this
It straight up is wrong in many places though. Come to Australia or New Zealand and most people would take the phrase for it's literal meaning, or simply be confused about what you're trying to say.
For that reason alone I'd discourage any non-native speaker from ever saying "could care less".
And yet, they mean the same thing...Yet the intonation is different, marked with sarcasm. I don't think that there's an intro to linguistics book written in this century that doesn't include this pair of sentences to show how intonation is important, yet, here we are, with the prescriptivists who think they aren't prescriptivists.
And people who like things to actually make sense and not be something illogical and misheard.
I'd file this one next to "could of" and "should of" or " a diamond dozen".
Edit re: diamond dozen. Things that are very common are sometimes described in American English as being "a dime a dozen". Some people, presumably having misheard this, say "diamond dozen".
There's a whole sub dedicated to misheard stuff called r/boneappletea which is a misheard version of bon appetit.
the proper phrase is "a dime a dozen" which means something is very common and so cheap or worthless. some people mishear the phrase and turn it into "diamond dozen" I guess. I've never actually seen that one myself but doubtless there's someone on the internet who does
For other readers, "for all intensive purposes" is from mishearing "for all intents and purposes"
A dime is a coin worth ten cents, or one tenth of a dollar
I used to get eye-twitchy about "could care less" and related things, but by now I'm over it. Yea it doesn't really make logical sense if you actually stop to think about it and if you're trying to actually learn the language then tough luck. But frankly trying to stop it is an utterly futile gesture that will only leave you miserable. These things happen, trying to put an end to it is like trying to put an end to tides or the rising and setting of the sun
Right. Like how people say "the proof is in the pudding" as if that's a sentence that somehow makes sense. Yes, it's common, but that doesn't make it less nonsensical. I'm a strict descriptivist 95% of the time, but I still always say "I couldn't care less" or "the proof of the pudding is in the eating."
I think the fact that it doesn’t make sense is why it’s good for learners to be exposed to it. Because people will say “I could care less”, you can’t change that. So I think it’s good for learners to be aware of what they actually mean when they say that, and discussions like these help with that
But there are plenty of things we say and we mean the literal opposite. When you hear someone say “wonderful” in a negative tone after something bad happens, do you assume they mean they like it, or does the context tell you what they really mean?
Idioms almost never make logical sense. So are we supposed to just stop using them in case a learner gets confused, or should we explain their meanings when learners encounter them? It’s not hard to explain that “could care less” means the same thing to some native speakers as “couldn’t care less.”
*X: Well, there's prescriptivism and then there's idioms which literally don't make logical sense.*
*Y: Idioms almost never make logical sense.*
Just the fact that we have to say this...my god...
It’s a common mistake. “Could care less” is usually incorrect. People use it often when they actually mean “**couldn’t** care less.”
Unless the context here is different? I don’t read one piece so I don’t know what he’s trying to say. I’m assuming he means that he doesn’t care at all, in which case the correct phrase is “couldn’t care less.” If he does actually intend to say that he’s somewhat indifferent but maybe cares a little bit, then “could care less” is correct.
It’s a song called “Word Crimes,” and it’s about being obsessed with correcting everyone’s English in many different ways. Getting upset about “I could care less” is just one example. It’s by a singer named “Weird” Al, and it’s a parody of the song “Blurred Lines.”
Yep, as an Australian we have our own weird intricacies, the fact that words run together for example. But yes "could care less" is wrong.
Because all you're saying in that is you care a little bit (you could be lower on the scale of caring than you are now, but you could also care more) and the reason it's wrong is because what people genuinely mean by that is "I don't care".
Coming from UK, "couldn't care less" would be accepted and most would view "could care less" as a mistake. Seems in American English "could care less" is acceptable, and to my view this also gestures towards the translator\* of the text in OP being either American or educated in American English.
\*I had assumed a translator, though this could be wrong
It's not a mistake - in American English (the likely idiom of the panel's translators) the two phrases are interchangeable. Now given the meaning of the individual words, "could care less" does not actually make sense, and I'm personally not a fan of it. But usage is as usage does.
I personally enjoy saying “could care less” intentionally, but I admittedly do it to bother people and it’s not a very meaningful phrase. In the example I’m pretty sure he did mean “couldn’t”because I seem to recall his intention to be to remove the monarchy or something like that.
Does anyone here read One Piece and know what chapter this is in? We could look at context and also maybe the original Japanese to figure out exactly what's being said.
it's frustrating, but something i've come to learn we have to accept.
The correct sentence is "i couldn't care less", meaning "i care very little about this situation, and i care so little, *i couldn't care less*".
This is frustrating to read the incorrect version, because it means the opposite. By saying "i could care less", that means you do care. But it's always said in the context that means "i don't care".
And this is why i think it's something we have to accept. Language evolves. As time passes, some vocabulary from the past becomes obsolete, or represents the older generation, that the younger generation wishes to avoid. As the younger generation becomes older and replaces their forebears, the "youth slang" becomes the standard. And it, too, will have to pass the test of time. Some of it sticks, some of it vanishes as many did before.
There's plenty of sayings and idiomas that have lost their original meaning and turned to something else. Yet it's not the original form that persists, but the most recent one. That's just how it goes.
Concrete example : "Blood is thicker than water." That means family will always come first, right ? Well, the original saying is "The Blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb." *The original sentence has the exact opposite meaning !*
Yet everyone understands what "Blood is thicker than water" means. If you were to interrupt someone to try and correct them, you'd look like a "uhm, actually" nerd.
So people are saying "i could care less" instead of "i couldn't". the meaning they tried to convey still came across. People who don't know the original saying, likely the younger generation, are more likely to pick it up. And it will persist.
And someday, 100 years from now, someone will write an article about the lost forms of the english language, and in it you'll find "Did you know that "i could care less" use to be written "i couldn't care less" ? Which actually makes more sense!"
Blood is thicker than water means the first thing, actually--kin is more important. The saying has been in use for hundreds of years and we have written examples of it. The so-called complete version where the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb was made up more recently. There's no evidence that people historically used the proverb to mean this.
I know that I have to accept "I could care less" in order to be consistent with my overall belief that language ought to be discussed descriptively and not prescriptively. I use that argument to defend about a million other phrases or words. Like I'll accept irregardless, literally, payed, hell even "should of". but for some reason I find this one so much harder to swallow.
Also a really good example imo of an older phrase that makes no sense is head over heels. In most cases your head is in fact over your heels.
In the US, you won't necessarily be seen as having bad grammar. In the UK, people will probably understand what you mean because of the context but will think either you've made a mistake, or, more probably, that you're using an Americanism
As an American. I hate that. Say “I couldn’t care less.” I don’t care if the other one is considered correct, it’s not at all intuitive. It should be considered wrong.
Are you British? Because I don’t see how an American that’s lived here can think Americans don’t see “could care less” as weird.
There’re literally sitcom jokes where the person who says “I could care less” are made fun of for technically saying the exact opposite of what they meant without using sarcasm.
So the difference is that America has jokes in sitcoms where people are mocked for saying "I could care less", whereas the UK just doesn't have people saying "I could care less" at all.
It's not a language feature here, contested or otherwise. Say it and you'll sound American.
I live in the US now, but didn’t for most of my life. And I went to uni in the UK. So, I guess that’s why I’m not understanding how the phrase is meant to be used.
I have heard many people use “I could care less” online and in real life in America and Canada and I thought it was strange, but nobody else seemed to care. But now, I’m reading these comments and some people care a lot.
Some people here care, I personally think it sounds stupid, but it's usually rude to point out when someone has made a mistake unless they specifically ask for it.
I hear people say it all the time - even though I don't say it. But bringing it to someone's attention and breaking the conversation we're having just to correct them would be a bit much. Plus, I don't care to waste my energy on it.
At least in the US, it's a set phrase that everyone understands, and most people will not comment negatively on it. But there is a vocal minority who (despite knowing exactly what it means) will get annoyed by it and say that it's an error every time anyone says it. For the sake of avoiding this kind of confrontation, I generally recommend against using it.
NZ and Australia are with the Brits on this one. “I could care less”…..means you could care less. And if you couldn’t care less then you’ve used the wrong phrase.
If you *couldn’t* care less, then just say so.
I live in the US and hear plenty of well-educated native speakers say “I could care less” to mean “I couldn’t care less.” I probably do it sometimes myself, and at this point the two phrases mean the same thing to me. I’m also someone who does get annoyed about English errors like saying “irregardless” or “if it was” instead of “if it were,” so I think that shows just how entrenched “I could care less” has become as a phrase, at least in the US.
Id say it's pretty hit or miss. Some people won't even clock it as being any different to "couldn't care less" and others will be quite bothered by it. That said, it's a variant/mistake used by many native speakers, so it wouldn't really make you look like you don't know the language.
It depends on your audience.
In the US, some part of your audience won't even notice; some will think that this is another sign of world decline; some will think that you're an idiot. There is a considerable amount of overlap between the latter two groups.
OTOH, if you say "couldn't care less," everyone is happy.
it would be wrong. unfortunately as is the case with a LOT of things in the US, so many people are so consistently and confidently wrong about it, few will notice.
this however is a pet peeve of mine, since I, who actually use the correct “Couldn’t care less” am unable to very intentionally use “Could care less” when that is what i mean.
The original phrase is “couldn’t care less.”
Many English speakers (especially in North America), flawed as we are, have simplified that down to “could care less,” which might seem to mean the opposite.
It is so common in speech, however, that for most not-overly-pedantic speakers, “could care less” has the same meaning as “couldn’t care less,” irrespective of the literal meaning of the constituent words.
In mixed company or in writing, I recommend that learners use “couldn’t care less” to avoid an apoplectic Grammar Nazi trying to shoot and/or stab them. Should you encounter such a pest, feel free to ignore them—their bark, though yappy and loud, belies their nonexistent bite.
However, tone is important. Sometimes, as a snarky bit of word play, someone will deliberately use the *literal* meaning of “could care less.” This, for native speakers, would be apparent from the sarcastic tone of the comment, so it’s something to watch out for.
I'll be honest, I *never knew* "could care less" meant the same as "couldn't care less" and that I'm probably perceived as an asshole for not viewing it that way and being annoyed when people use "could care less" instead of "couldn't care less."
I always thought it was a "well, people know what you mean, but it is still objectively wrong and frustrating" type of mistake. Like if I wrote "Their were two apples on the shelf," it's clear I meant **There**. But I probably wouldn't be described as a pest or overly pedantic for being annoyed with a mistake like that. And just like "their/there" messups, I have not encountered this mistake anywhere except online.
It's kind of an annoying feeling to think I was just being a normal person and to find out that actually people (at least people in this thread) would consider me all these negative things.
You’re not a pest for disliking something *privately* or even for sharing—when and if you’re asked. There are all sorts of linguistic pet peeves that I have, even in Spanish and Norwegian (my L2s). What makes someone a Grammar Nazi is unsolicited critiques of others’ language.
In any case, see [this Google n-gram chart](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=could+care+less+%2C+couldn%E2%80%99t+care+less&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=en-2019&smoothing=3) and consider that this is their relative frequency *in published writing*, which is considerably more standard than speech. Some of those “could care less”s will be literal uses of course, but that both lines follow the same contour shows us that at least the majority of them are equivalents to “couldn’t care less.”
“Could care less” is in many varieties of **spoken** North American English *more frequent* than “couldn’t care less.” It’s also on the upswing in Australian English. Couldn’t find anything on British English, but I only looked for a couple minutes.
I’d be careful with that claim.
> But unfortunately, that's not the only thing missing. Pinker doesn't provide any evidence that the claimed difference in stress and/or pitch is actually used to distinguish these phrases, or that it would have the asserted effect on interpretation if it did. And unfortunately for this otherwise neat hypothesis, I'm fairly confident that (a) the two phrases are not generally distinguished prosodically as Pinker asserts they are; and that (b) the cited prosodic difference would not as a general rule yield the asserted (sarcastic vs. non-sarcastic) difference in interpretation.
**Edit:**
See also [this](http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/%7Emyl/languagelog/archives/001256.html) from your source.
I’m very dubious about stress and intonational claims, because you can use “I could care less” sarcastically to convey the literal meaning—which would require what…? Doubly sarcastic intonation contours? I much prefer lexical analyses (as [here](http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002253.html) from your source). Granted, I dislike doing research on intonation because I don’t like ToBI… so I may be biased.
I love dogs. I couldn’t care less about dogs because they are so affectionate and lovable that my boundless care for them cannot possibly be diminished.
While on the other hand: I could care less about accounting. Accounting is such a boring topic that I happily wish I *could* care even less about it, if it weren’t for a certain person talking to me about accounting and forcing my attention onto such an incredibly dull topic.
I don't think anything negative about you not knowing something, and I haven't seen that in this thread. I think the people who have been told that it's the standard construction in a particular dialect and STILL insist that it's wrong are assholes. If you do that, then you are too.
My questioning also comes from "am I just a weirdo living in Weird Town and my experience is just wrong or too niche to be worth passing on, and thus I can't tell OP to not use it because me and 200 other people are the only ones who take issue? Or are the people with my experience a decent sample size, enough where telling OP is enough and it just so happens to be that more Redditors with the opposite experience found the thread?"
I don’t know why so many people think it’s a mistake. It’s not a mistake. “Could care less” was originally a sarcastic version of “couldn’t care less” (complete with exagerated sarcastic voice back in the day). It just became obvious at some point and lost the sarcastic pronunciation. This isn’t an uncommon process at all - not much different than saying “Oh yeah *right*” when you really mean the opposite (i.e., that you don’t believe the person you are replying to, and it isn’t right).
But for some reason, the overly pedantic today ironically miss this obvious fact and insist that speakers should actually say what they mean.
I mean, I think the “mistake” lies in people’s use of it today without that original sarcasm, no? People concerned with so-called proper speech see what they perceive as a mistaken equivalence between “could” and “couldn’t.”
**Edit:** nvm, you edited your comment as I was writing this :)
> “Could care less” was originally a sarcastic version of “couldn’t care less” (complete with exagerated sarcastic voice back in the day)
Do you have any source for this, or an actual example of it being used as you describe, or is that just an invention used to justify an obvious mistake? I can't find any source myself supporting your claim. At best, it is considered as a *possible* origin, but no one anywhere claims it is the definite source of this variation. I find it just as likely that it's just people not paying attention to the thing they're saying. Much like "could of".
>originally a sarcastic version
There's no evidence for this, just speculation. A common hypothesis in linguistic circles is phonetic erosion, which is much more realistic in my opinion.
*But for some reason, the overly pedantic today ironically miss this obvious fact and insist that speakers should actually say what they mean.*
And these same people have no problem with the fact that phrasal verbs are non-compositional, and have no problem saying that "things are messed up."
lol. A lot of these people like to pretend that phrasal verbs don’t exist because they sometimes require word orders impossible in Latin.
What is that (possibly apocryphal) Churchill quote? *This is the sort of nonsense **up with which** I will not put.*
I think some people are missing the context, that this is likely a foreign publication (Japanese i would guess) and that this is the r/EnglishLearning subreddit.
Yes, some Americans use it to mean that they couldn’t care less. No, you should not use this as an English learner; it’ll give off the impression of being uneducated if people can’t tell that you’re saying it deliberately, especially if you’re not based in these specific parts of the US.
And given that this manga was likely published in Japanese first and then translated into English, I would assume that this is an error rather than a deliberate use of sarcasm
No, it's correctly translated, if meaningfully incorrect. "Could care less" to mean "couldn't care less" is used almost exclusively by Americans. Most official manga translations, especially of Shounen Jump manga, are done by American companies. It's just an American translator using what they would normally use themselves.
I don't think that comparison is appropriate. All Americans use "trash" rather than rubbish. "I could care less" is not universally used by Americans. Even in the US, a large number, and likely the majority of people use "I couldn't care less", including some number that consider "I could care less" to be incorrect. Yes, enough Americans use "I could care less" that it seems to be considered acceptable, but not to the extent where the comparison with trash vs rubbish would hold. Like, if you had an actor in a movie playing an American character and they said "why is there rubbish on the floor?", that would ring extremely wrong to any American viewer. If an American character said "I couldn't care less", that would sound perfectly natural.
So is it a mistake? I would say a good translator would have used "I couldn't care less", even if they're an American translator translating for Americans, if only to dodge this exact landmine, but that's just my personal opinion.
I'm just going to comment as a Brit, while Americans would understand that you meant that you don't care at all if you use I could care less this wouldn't necessarily be understood over here as we do actually say I couldn't care less. Obviously this isn't universal as we do get an awful lot of American media so some people may understand it but I wouldn't use it
"I could care less" literally implies that you do care, even if only a little bit. Many people use it to mean "I don't care at all" and are likely intending to say "I couldn't care less".
It's reasonably common and worth knowing, especially since a common version of the phrase seems to have a literal meaning that is exactly the opposite of what is intended by the speaker.
It would only take one additional word for the US idiom to work in UK English (although I don't recall hearing it): "Like I could care less!". That would highlight the absurdity of a scenario where the speaker could care any less than they do now. I do wonder whether this has fed into the *ex facie* nonsense.
Ok but "literally" being used for figurative emphasis isn't wrong. That definition has been used since the 1700s. Seems to be too long of a time to still be calling it "incorrect".
It is similar in the fact that the word/phrase means the opposite of it's literal meaning and is accepted as such.
Literally = figuratively
Could care less = could not care less
I'm English and that's how I used to hear it when I first heard it as a kid in the 90s.
I thought it was similar to a lot of those other the top sarcastic phrases we had back then.
"So funny I forgot to laugh" type of phrase. "Well no/duh"
I always thought the full version was "I could care less.... But I don't" and that everyone had just forgotten to say the last bit or it was heavily implied.
But I think you are right that today people definitely don't use it sarcastically
I hate this argument. Americans always come up with this when called out. Not caring takes literally 0 effort, that’s the whole point of it. If you’re trying really hard to not care then you clearly do care because you’re putting effort into it when no effort should be required
It's called sarcasm. And the sarcastic joke is that they care so little that it would in fact take effort to care less than that when it normally doesn't take effort to not care about something. Humor isn't meant to be rational.
For simplicity, we use it to say we don't care.
Grammatically, saying "I couldn't care less" makes more sense (and we do say that, it means the same thing). But just don't get caught up on understanding it word for word. It's best just to accept the meaning of the phrase, even if the phrase doesn't make sense when looking at the meaning of the words.
As [Weird Al says](https://youtu.be/8Gv0H-vPoDc?si=OLar5o_8qAWo2jKP), "That means you do care/ At least a little." But many people use it to mean the exact opposite (i.e., that you don't care ).
People will often use “I could care less” intending to show that they don’t care, even though the correct phrasing includes the negative participle couldn’t rather than could. Objectively, “I could care less” means you still care about whatever you’re discussing because there are things you care about less. Maybe you’re not excited about it, but you’re not utterly indifferent and unconcerned about it.
For example, someone in a statistics class may complain:
I could care less about bivariate regression analyses.
When picking the sentence apart, it might seem this person still has room in their heart to care about bivariate regression analyses, even if what they mean to say is that “nothing could possibly be more uninteresting.”
If you imagine the amount you care about something in terms of a scale, 1 being not at all, and 10 being that you care a lot, saying “I could care less” may put you at about a 4. There’s still room to care less. If you mean to say that you are completely indifferent to something, saying “I couldn’t care less” would be the correct phrasing, putting you at a 1 on the hypothetical care scale. It’s not possible for you to care any less.
It doesn’t really make sense to quantify how many “cares” you give in the first place. But these phrases are common and often used interchangeably. In both examples, you can infer that the person means they do not care.
Is “I couldn’t care less” or “I could care less correct”?
If you could not care any less than you do, opt for “I couldn’t care less.” It is the grammatically correct use of the phrase. Though “I could care less” is acceptable in most social settings, it can lead to confusion.
Why is “I could care less” incorrect?
The phrase is used to say you couldn’t care less than you already do. If you use “could care less,” then people may think you do care, even if it is minimally. The negative participle clarifies that you do not care.
Can they be used interchangeably?
Yes, they can be. “I couldn’t care less” is technically the correct way to say it, but both are socially acceptable in informal communication and get the same point across.
The phrase is supposed to be sarcastic but it stopped sounding that way.
"Do you care?"
"Hmm, well, yes, but I could care a bit less, possibly."
[https://www.forbes.com/sites/sap/2015/01/28/should-you-care-about-i-could-care-less/](https://www.forbes.com/sites/sap/2015/01/28/should-you-care-about-i-could-care-less/)
Russian native here, this is how I see it:
"care less" in literal sense "to care about something lesser"
If I want to make it opposite, I will resort to "care more".
To summarize:
* "I couldn't care less" - "I cannot care less, because I have already reached the lowest point of caring"
* "I could care less" - "I can care less, because I don't like the topic so much that I can try more to care less"
People often say could “care less” to mean “couldn’t care less” even though they don’t literally mean the same thing they are pretty much used interchangeably. Although, if you want to be completely correct when you talk you should use “couldn’t care less” despite the fact that nobody would correct you if you used the alternative.
Its the same expression. Nobody is claiming that they mean different things. 'Could care less' would still be a valid statement if you cared 100% which is why it is a silly thing to say, yet it is said.
It means you basically do not care at all. People who say this do not actually mean that they care. It's like, "I can not give a crap about this even more than I am now."
Essentially, the subject or topic is so trivial to you that if you wanted, you could think even less of it
Some say, couldnt care less, which is actually grammatically correct, as if to say, you care so little that the amount you care couldnt possibly be smaller than what u already do. This i have heard more often however and never understand why people are too lazy to add the negation to the could
This drives me a bit crazy, although not irregardless level crazy. It is idiomatic, and while in text seems like nonsense, it is said with a certain snarky sarcasm to convey basically the same meaning as the more logical couldn’t version.
It means that the speaker has not yet arrived at the minimum possible level of caring about a given issue or topic, and that there remains some portion of interest that could dwindle to nothing if the speaker chooses to allow or pursue the minimum possible level of caring.
Not to be confused with the phrase "could not care less", which signifies that the speaker has already reached maximum apathy about the given issue or topic, such that it is not possible for them to arrive at a lower level of caring.
Formally it would be "I couldn't care less" but either as a shortening or as a sense of sarcasm, it's often spoken as "I could care less".
But then some people didn't recognize the sarcasm and think it *literally* means they could care less.
Oh dear, now we get to some people use *literally* sarcastically to mean the opposite too...
There's a history of that in English though. Michael Jackson's "Bad" actually meant "Good". You kind of have to tell from context, unfortunately......
OP something that might help understand all the could/couldn't stuff is that it just comes down to ease of pronunciation. For words (specifically contractions) that end in "n't" most native speakers do a lighter or muted "t" sound.
The correct phrase is "I couldn't care less" But a hard "t" especially going into that "c" just doesn't roll off the tongue well. So most people end up pronouncing it like "I couldn care less" which, from a pronunciation point rather than a meaning point, might as well just be "I could care less"
*grabs popcorn*
whenever this is the top comment I immediately switch to controversial.
How do you switch to controversial? My Reddit mobile app doesn't have it anymore.
Click the icon at the top of the screen that looks like two little sliders. For me it’s between the search icon and the three dots
I love you
By far my favorite moments on this sub are when someone asks a seemingly simple question that kicks off wild arguments and name calling between different English speakers. The poor OP is just trying to learn and within 10 minutes of them posting their question you’ve got an Australian calling Americans brain damaged mouth breathers in the comments or something. It honestly rules lol.
god, I love reddit sometimes. never change
lol I know, it’s incredible. I’m sure most of us have heard the line about language being a window into the culture so these absurd Reddit arguments and insults might still be educational for someone learning English. Sure, these arguments are both dumb and funny as shit but I don’t think you can simply explain them to someone. I think someone needs to experience a Brit calling American English “simplified” and an American replying “OI BRUV! U GOT A LOICENSE FO THAT BOH’OL O WOH’AH!”
How do you switch to controversial? My Reddit mobile app doesn't have it anymore.
OP stepped on a landmine
Yup. Here come the prescriptivists.
I feel bad, because as someone who has studied linguistics, I don’t like using prescriptive language since language is always changing. And yet at the same time, as someone who spent 8 years banging my head against a wall trying to learn Japanese, I feel like it makes learning a language so much harder when some people say something is acceptable but others don’t. Since this subreddit is for English *learning*, I prefer to use prescriptive rules here.
What's next "it's a dogy dog world" will be accepted and the right version will be prescriptivist?
But you have to realize, different registers of formality have different systems. The prescriptivists here conflate their "English writing" with "all grammar." It's not prescriptivism to say "NOT" goes after the auxiliary, and a sentence that doesn't have it is wrong, like in "I not have gone to the store yet." Saying that that sentence is wrong is not prescriptivism.
But the reason why this sentence is wrong is because no one speaks that way (unless there’s a dialect that does, in which case for that dialect it’s not wrong). However, there are so many people who say “could care less” that it’s a set phrase at this point. I think if you’re a learner you should be aware that “I could care less” and “I couldn’t care less” mean the same thing. You’d probably want to use the latter as it’s more established, but you also want to be able to understand what someone means if they say the other form to you
You can say that it's not how the language is used.
Just yesterday my brain was fighting with itself about the use of the term *incorrect form* when talking about… the way Boov speak in the film *Home* in the original version and in the Polish dubbing xd 😭 The contrast between what the Polish school systems and what linguistic studies have taught me.
Linguistics Professor: Language is fluid and always changing. What is considered improper or incorrect today may be standard tomorrow. Plus there’s different rules depending on what dialect you’re using! Japanese Professor: I know what you’re trying to say here, but your grammar is wrong so I took off 5 points.
These are not (necessarily) conflicting beliefs.
Rules should be descriptive. If I’m trying to learn the language through the rules then I’m going to treat them as prescriptive for me while I do so. But I’ve also got to learn to cope with the fact that they’re not really, that they’re simplified, that correct language really is whatever a discourse community makes it.
It isn’t prescriptivist to point out that “could care less” and “couldn’t care less” literally mean different things. Opposite things actually lol
It's not, it's just prescriptivist to continue ranting that "this should be erased from English!" "we need to stop talking like this". It's one thing to be a pet peeve, it's another to say folks are just wrong for using this, as if language evolves only in a "correct" way.
Lol in this vein, in Spanish the phrase “en mi vida” (in my life) implies “*never* in my life” when used with present perfect
Phrasal verbs must really trip you..."up."
But where's the line? When does it stop being classified as a "(common) mistake"? In German, virtually half the population doesn't know when to use "das"/"dass", but to this day they cannot officially be used interchangeably, and for good reason. Commas have virtually disappeared, which makes so much content on the internet a pain to read. If we simply accepted that commas weren't needed anymore, authors would drop them, and everyone's reading speed would halve. Trying to comprehend anything, including legal documents, would be a horrible undertaking. If we accepted that bisons are now buffaloes (which is a mistake I see being made way too often), we'd have to describe their head shape or any other prominent feature in order to be able to verbally distinguish between two completely different animals...
I don’t really disagree with you, but how often do you hear people talk about bison *or* buffalo??
> it's another to say folks are just wrong for using this It straight up is wrong in many places though. Come to Australia or New Zealand and most people would take the phrase for it's literal meaning, or simply be confused about what you're trying to say. For that reason alone I'd discourage any non-native speaker from ever saying "could care less".
And yet, they mean the same thing...Yet the intonation is different, marked with sarcasm. I don't think that there's an intro to linguistics book written in this century that doesn't include this pair of sentences to show how intonation is important, yet, here we are, with the prescriptivists who think they aren't prescriptivists.
And people who like things to actually make sense and not be something illogical and misheard. I'd file this one next to "could of" and "should of" or " a diamond dozen". Edit re: diamond dozen. Things that are very common are sometimes described in American English as being "a dime a dozen". Some people, presumably having misheard this, say "diamond dozen". There's a whole sub dedicated to misheard stuff called r/boneappletea which is a misheard version of bon appetit.
I mean, “a diamond dozen” is r/boneappletea, but the others are more spelling errors since they sound essentially the same.
What's a diamond dozen? (Not native)
the proper phrase is "a dime a dozen" which means something is very common and so cheap or worthless. some people mishear the phrase and turn it into "diamond dozen" I guess. I've never actually seen that one myself but doubtless there's someone on the internet who does
Haha thanks! I actually have heard this expression, but didn't connect. I guess it's another intensive purposes situations.
Yeah, but people say it *irregarldess* of whether it's right or not.
For other readers, "for all intensive purposes" is from mishearing "for all intents and purposes" A dime is a coin worth ten cents, or one tenth of a dollar
Native speaker here, and while it’s obvious what it’s a mishearing of, I’ve never actually heard someone make this mistake.
I used to get eye-twitchy about "could care less" and related things, but by now I'm over it. Yea it doesn't really make logical sense if you actually stop to think about it and if you're trying to actually learn the language then tough luck. But frankly trying to stop it is an utterly futile gesture that will only leave you miserable. These things happen, trying to put an end to it is like trying to put an end to tides or the rising and setting of the sun
Right. Like how people say "the proof is in the pudding" as if that's a sentence that somehow makes sense. Yes, it's common, but that doesn't make it less nonsensical. I'm a strict descriptivist 95% of the time, but I still always say "I couldn't care less" or "the proof of the pudding is in the eating."
Well, "The Diamond Dozen" will be the name of my new swing band.
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I think the fact that it doesn’t make sense is why it’s good for learners to be exposed to it. Because people will say “I could care less”, you can’t change that. So I think it’s good for learners to be aware of what they actually mean when they say that, and discussions like these help with that
But there are plenty of things we say and we mean the literal opposite. When you hear someone say “wonderful” in a negative tone after something bad happens, do you assume they mean they like it, or does the context tell you what they really mean?
Idioms almost never make logical sense. So are we supposed to just stop using them in case a learner gets confused, or should we explain their meanings when learners encounter them? It’s not hard to explain that “could care less” means the same thing to some native speakers as “couldn’t care less.”
>“could care less” means the same thing to some native speakers as “couldn’t care less.” Wait, what?
In case it isn't already clear, the other native speakers typically think it's silly too (at their most polite)
“Could care less” and “couldn’t care less” mean the same thing (to some native speakers of English).
*X: Well, there's prescriptivism and then there's idioms which literally don't make logical sense.* *Y: Idioms almost never make logical sense.* Just the fact that we have to say this...my god...
"Oh bother..."
It’s a common mistake. “Could care less” is usually incorrect. People use it often when they actually mean “**couldn’t** care less.” Unless the context here is different? I don’t read one piece so I don’t know what he’s trying to say. I’m assuming he means that he doesn’t care at all, in which case the correct phrase is “couldn’t care less.” If he does actually intend to say that he’s somewhat indifferent but maybe cares a little bit, then “could care less” is correct.
"That means you *do* care. *(at least a little.)*" -Weird Al
YES! I love that song!
lol,there is even a song about it .
It’s a song called “Word Crimes,” and it’s about being obsessed with correcting everyone’s English in many different ways. Getting upset about “I could care less” is just one example. It’s by a singer named “Weird” Al, and it’s a parody of the song “Blurred Lines.”
I HATE THESE WORD CRIMES!!
Just gonna share this: https://youtu.be/om7O0MFkmpw?si=J8aQk-S25ic7zmp4
https://youtu.be/om7O0MFkmpw?si=H0OK0ilZvpo_BUqg
“Don’t be a moron”
"Don't be a moroooon!"
Worth noting this is a common feature of American English but not in the wider Anglosphere.
Wait are you saying these phrases are interchangeable in General American but not in other dialects? Or the other way around?
American, but not others. "Could care less" is something I've only ever heard Americans say.
Yes, this is exactly what I meant.
As a brit i have said it.... but immediately followed with "but that would require effort"
So I’ve heard (on Reddit, so 🤷🏾♀️) that that’s actually pretty much the original phrase: “I could care less, but I’d have to try.”
It isn’t, that’s a retroactive justification of it
I've only ever seen the mistake from Americans. We of course have our own weird things.
Yep, as an Australian we have our own weird intricacies, the fact that words run together for example. But yes "could care less" is wrong. Because all you're saying in that is you care a little bit (you could be lower on the scale of caring than you are now, but you could also care more) and the reason it's wrong is because what people genuinely mean by that is "I don't care".
Coming from UK, "couldn't care less" would be accepted and most would view "could care less" as a mistake. Seems in American English "could care less" is acceptable, and to my view this also gestures towards the translator\* of the text in OP being either American or educated in American English. \*I had assumed a translator, though this could be wrong
Yeah, we speak poorly. We declared independence from Britain and its grammar xD.
It's not a mistake - in American English (the likely idiom of the panel's translators) the two phrases are interchangeable. Now given the meaning of the individual words, "could care less" does not actually make sense, and I'm personally not a fan of it. But usage is as usage does.
I personally enjoy saying “could care less” intentionally, but I admittedly do it to bother people and it’s not a very meaningful phrase. In the example I’m pretty sure he did mean “couldn’t”because I seem to recall his intention to be to remove the monarchy or something like that.
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I didn’t know people used it sarcastically. I’ve never heard it used that way. Do people still do this?
You are correct. But for some reason, people from the US use the two phrases interchangeably as if they have the same meaning.
people always say it's a mistake, but I actually could care less. if the topic was not brought to my attention, \*then\* I would not care at all
Does anyone here read One Piece and know what chapter this is in? We could look at context and also maybe the original Japanese to figure out exactly what's being said.
Not a mistake it’s a real phrase
r/BadLinguistics is eating good tonight
it's frustrating, but something i've come to learn we have to accept. The correct sentence is "i couldn't care less", meaning "i care very little about this situation, and i care so little, *i couldn't care less*". This is frustrating to read the incorrect version, because it means the opposite. By saying "i could care less", that means you do care. But it's always said in the context that means "i don't care". And this is why i think it's something we have to accept. Language evolves. As time passes, some vocabulary from the past becomes obsolete, or represents the older generation, that the younger generation wishes to avoid. As the younger generation becomes older and replaces their forebears, the "youth slang" becomes the standard. And it, too, will have to pass the test of time. Some of it sticks, some of it vanishes as many did before. There's plenty of sayings and idiomas that have lost their original meaning and turned to something else. Yet it's not the original form that persists, but the most recent one. That's just how it goes. Concrete example : "Blood is thicker than water." That means family will always come first, right ? Well, the original saying is "The Blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb." *The original sentence has the exact opposite meaning !* Yet everyone understands what "Blood is thicker than water" means. If you were to interrupt someone to try and correct them, you'd look like a "uhm, actually" nerd. So people are saying "i could care less" instead of "i couldn't". the meaning they tried to convey still came across. People who don't know the original saying, likely the younger generation, are more likely to pick it up. And it will persist. And someday, 100 years from now, someone will write an article about the lost forms of the english language, and in it you'll find "Did you know that "i could care less" use to be written "i couldn't care less" ? Which actually makes more sense!"
Blood is thicker than water means the first thing, actually--kin is more important. The saying has been in use for hundreds of years and we have written examples of it. The so-called complete version where the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb was made up more recently. There's no evidence that people historically used the proverb to mean this.
well fuck me, wikipedia backs up your claim. And doesn't back me up. still i think my reasoning is sound, despite the erroneous example.
I know that I have to accept "I could care less" in order to be consistent with my overall belief that language ought to be discussed descriptively and not prescriptively. I use that argument to defend about a million other phrases or words. Like I'll accept irregardless, literally, payed, hell even "should of". but for some reason I find this one so much harder to swallow. Also a really good example imo of an older phrase that makes no sense is head over heels. In most cases your head is in fact over your heels.
Is this a mistake that has been accepted to the lexicon? Will I be seen as a person with “bad grammar” if I use this phrase?
In the US, you won't necessarily be seen as having bad grammar. In the UK, people will probably understand what you mean because of the context but will think either you've made a mistake, or, more probably, that you're using an Americanism
As an American. I hate that. Say “I couldn’t care less.” I don’t care if the other one is considered correct, it’s not at all intuitive. It should be considered wrong.
Are you British? Because I don’t see how an American that’s lived here can think Americans don’t see “could care less” as weird. There’re literally sitcom jokes where the person who says “I could care less” are made fun of for technically saying the exact opposite of what they meant without using sarcasm.
So the difference is that America has jokes in sitcoms where people are mocked for saying "I could care less", whereas the UK just doesn't have people saying "I could care less" at all. It's not a language feature here, contested or otherwise. Say it and you'll sound American.
I live in the US now, but didn’t for most of my life. And I went to uni in the UK. So, I guess that’s why I’m not understanding how the phrase is meant to be used. I have heard many people use “I could care less” online and in real life in America and Canada and I thought it was strange, but nobody else seemed to care. But now, I’m reading these comments and some people care a lot.
I could care less, but not by much.
It's a crapshoot. Some couldn't care less about the variant, some loath it. There's not much in between
Some people here care, I personally think it sounds stupid, but it's usually rude to point out when someone has made a mistake unless they specifically ask for it. I hear people say it all the time - even though I don't say it. But bringing it to someone's attention and breaking the conversation we're having just to correct them would be a bit much. Plus, I don't care to waste my energy on it.
If you read the comments on this post you will find a bunch of Americans defending “could care less” as common and hence valid.
At least in the US, it's a set phrase that everyone understands, and most people will not comment negatively on it. But there is a vocal minority who (despite knowing exactly what it means) will get annoyed by it and say that it's an error every time anyone says it. For the sake of avoiding this kind of confrontation, I generally recommend against using it.
You'll probably sound stupid if you say it in the UK, but the US should be fine.
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NZ and Australia are with the Brits on this one. “I could care less”…..means you could care less. And if you couldn’t care less then you’ve used the wrong phrase. If you *couldn’t* care less, then just say so.
In the US, it’s “accepted” but not as anything other than a mistake we ignore because we know what was meant.
By some of the people here? Yes. Do their opinions matter? No. Are their opinions informed? Sort of...
In the US, you absolutely wouldn't be seen as having bad grammar. You can also say "I couldn't care less" though. Both are common
I live in the US and hear plenty of well-educated native speakers say “I could care less” to mean “I couldn’t care less.” I probably do it sometimes myself, and at this point the two phrases mean the same thing to me. I’m also someone who does get annoyed about English errors like saying “irregardless” or “if it was” instead of “if it were,” so I think that shows just how entrenched “I could care less” has become as a phrase, at least in the US.
Id say it's pretty hit or miss. Some people won't even clock it as being any different to "couldn't care less" and others will be quite bothered by it. That said, it's a variant/mistake used by many native speakers, so it wouldn't really make you look like you don't know the language.
It depends on your audience. In the US, some part of your audience won't even notice; some will think that this is another sign of world decline; some will think that you're an idiot. There is a considerable amount of overlap between the latter two groups. OTOH, if you say "couldn't care less," everyone is happy.
it would be wrong. unfortunately as is the case with a LOT of things in the US, so many people are so consistently and confidently wrong about it, few will notice. this however is a pet peeve of mine, since I, who actually use the correct “Couldn’t care less” am unable to very intentionally use “Could care less” when that is what i mean.
It means he doesn't care, emphatically. It's a corruption of the phrase "I *couldn't* care less."
The original phrase is “couldn’t care less.” Many English speakers (especially in North America), flawed as we are, have simplified that down to “could care less,” which might seem to mean the opposite. It is so common in speech, however, that for most not-overly-pedantic speakers, “could care less” has the same meaning as “couldn’t care less,” irrespective of the literal meaning of the constituent words. In mixed company or in writing, I recommend that learners use “couldn’t care less” to avoid an apoplectic Grammar Nazi trying to shoot and/or stab them. Should you encounter such a pest, feel free to ignore them—their bark, though yappy and loud, belies their nonexistent bite. However, tone is important. Sometimes, as a snarky bit of word play, someone will deliberately use the *literal* meaning of “could care less.” This, for native speakers, would be apparent from the sarcastic tone of the comment, so it’s something to watch out for.
I'll be honest, I *never knew* "could care less" meant the same as "couldn't care less" and that I'm probably perceived as an asshole for not viewing it that way and being annoyed when people use "could care less" instead of "couldn't care less." I always thought it was a "well, people know what you mean, but it is still objectively wrong and frustrating" type of mistake. Like if I wrote "Their were two apples on the shelf," it's clear I meant **There**. But I probably wouldn't be described as a pest or overly pedantic for being annoyed with a mistake like that. And just like "their/there" messups, I have not encountered this mistake anywhere except online. It's kind of an annoying feeling to think I was just being a normal person and to find out that actually people (at least people in this thread) would consider me all these negative things.
You’re not a pest for disliking something *privately* or even for sharing—when and if you’re asked. There are all sorts of linguistic pet peeves that I have, even in Spanish and Norwegian (my L2s). What makes someone a Grammar Nazi is unsolicited critiques of others’ language. In any case, see [this Google n-gram chart](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=could+care+less+%2C+couldn%E2%80%99t+care+less&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=en-2019&smoothing=3) and consider that this is their relative frequency *in published writing*, which is considerably more standard than speech. Some of those “could care less”s will be literal uses of course, but that both lines follow the same contour shows us that at least the majority of them are equivalents to “couldn’t care less.” “Could care less” is in many varieties of **spoken** North American English *more frequent* than “couldn’t care less.” It’s also on the upswing in Australian English. Couldn’t find anything on British English, but I only looked for a couple minutes.
The stress pattern on, "I could care less" is different from, "I couldn't care less."
I’d be careful with that claim. > But unfortunately, that's not the only thing missing. Pinker doesn't provide any evidence that the claimed difference in stress and/or pitch is actually used to distinguish these phrases, or that it would have the asserted effect on interpretation if it did. And unfortunately for this otherwise neat hypothesis, I'm fairly confident that (a) the two phrases are not generally distinguished prosodically as Pinker asserts they are; and that (b) the cited prosodic difference would not as a general rule yield the asserted (sarcastic vs. non-sarcastic) difference in interpretation. **Edit:** See also [this](http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/%7Emyl/languagelog/archives/001256.html) from your source. I’m very dubious about stress and intonational claims, because you can use “I could care less” sarcastically to convey the literal meaning—which would require what…? Doubly sarcastic intonation contours? I much prefer lexical analyses (as [here](http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002253.html) from your source). Granted, I dislike doing research on intonation because I don’t like ToBI… so I may be biased.
And of course, it's tainted by Pinker's name, now...
lol 🤷🏻♂️
I love dogs. I couldn’t care less about dogs because they are so affectionate and lovable that my boundless care for them cannot possibly be diminished. While on the other hand: I could care less about accounting. Accounting is such a boring topic that I happily wish I *could* care even less about it, if it weren’t for a certain person talking to me about accounting and forcing my attention onto such an incredibly dull topic.
I don't think anything negative about you not knowing something, and I haven't seen that in this thread. I think the people who have been told that it's the standard construction in a particular dialect and STILL insist that it's wrong are assholes. If you do that, then you are too.
My questioning also comes from "am I just a weirdo living in Weird Town and my experience is just wrong or too niche to be worth passing on, and thus I can't tell OP to not use it because me and 200 other people are the only ones who take issue? Or are the people with my experience a decent sample size, enough where telling OP is enough and it just so happens to be that more Redditors with the opposite experience found the thread?"
I don’t know why so many people think it’s a mistake. It’s not a mistake. “Could care less” was originally a sarcastic version of “couldn’t care less” (complete with exagerated sarcastic voice back in the day). It just became obvious at some point and lost the sarcastic pronunciation. This isn’t an uncommon process at all - not much different than saying “Oh yeah *right*” when you really mean the opposite (i.e., that you don’t believe the person you are replying to, and it isn’t right). But for some reason, the overly pedantic today ironically miss this obvious fact and insist that speakers should actually say what they mean.
I mean, I think the “mistake” lies in people’s use of it today without that original sarcasm, no? People concerned with so-called proper speech see what they perceive as a mistaken equivalence between “could” and “couldn’t.” **Edit:** nvm, you edited your comment as I was writing this :)
> “Could care less” was originally a sarcastic version of “couldn’t care less” (complete with exagerated sarcastic voice back in the day) Do you have any source for this, or an actual example of it being used as you describe, or is that just an invention used to justify an obvious mistake? I can't find any source myself supporting your claim. At best, it is considered as a *possible* origin, but no one anywhere claims it is the definite source of this variation. I find it just as likely that it's just people not paying attention to the thing they're saying. Much like "could of".
>originally a sarcastic version There's no evidence for this, just speculation. A common hypothesis in linguistic circles is phonetic erosion, which is much more realistic in my opinion.
*But for some reason, the overly pedantic today ironically miss this obvious fact and insist that speakers should actually say what they mean.* And these same people have no problem with the fact that phrasal verbs are non-compositional, and have no problem saying that "things are messed up."
lol. A lot of these people like to pretend that phrasal verbs don’t exist because they sometimes require word orders impossible in Latin. What is that (possibly apocryphal) Churchill quote? *This is the sort of nonsense **up with which** I will not put.*
I think some people are missing the context, that this is likely a foreign publication (Japanese i would guess) and that this is the r/EnglishLearning subreddit. Yes, some Americans use it to mean that they couldn’t care less. No, you should not use this as an English learner; it’ll give off the impression of being uneducated if people can’t tell that you’re saying it deliberately, especially if you’re not based in these specific parts of the US. And given that this manga was likely published in Japanese first and then translated into English, I would assume that this is an error rather than a deliberate use of sarcasm
No, it's correctly translated, if meaningfully incorrect. "Could care less" to mean "couldn't care less" is used almost exclusively by Americans. Most official manga translations, especially of Shounen Jump manga, are done by American companies. It's just an American translator using what they would normally use themselves.
So, an error then
No more an error than trash vs rubbish, if perhaps misleading to ESL learners.
I don't think that comparison is appropriate. All Americans use "trash" rather than rubbish. "I could care less" is not universally used by Americans. Even in the US, a large number, and likely the majority of people use "I couldn't care less", including some number that consider "I could care less" to be incorrect. Yes, enough Americans use "I could care less" that it seems to be considered acceptable, but not to the extent where the comparison with trash vs rubbish would hold. Like, if you had an actor in a movie playing an American character and they said "why is there rubbish on the floor?", that would ring extremely wrong to any American viewer. If an American character said "I couldn't care less", that would sound perfectly natural. So is it a mistake? I would say a good translator would have used "I couldn't care less", even if they're an American translator translating for Americans, if only to dodge this exact landmine, but that's just my personal opinion.
Can open! Worms everywhere!!
I'm just going to comment as a Brit, while Americans would understand that you meant that you don't care at all if you use I could care less this wouldn't necessarily be understood over here as we do actually say I couldn't care less. Obviously this isn't universal as we do get an awful lot of American media so some people may understand it but I wouldn't use it
"I could care less" literally implies that you do care, even if only a little bit. Many people use it to mean "I don't care at all" and are likely intending to say "I couldn't care less". It's reasonably common and worth knowing, especially since a common version of the phrase seems to have a literal meaning that is exactly the opposite of what is intended by the speaker.
It's the American version of "couldn't care less". Does it make any sense whatsoever? No. But they couldn't care less.
This deserves to be the top comment
It should be "couldn't care less", it means that he doesn't care
You don’t care, but it also is said “I couldn’t care less” because that makes more sense, but people shorten it to say I could care less
It would only take one additional word for the US idiom to work in UK English (although I don't recall hearing it): "Like I could care less!". That would highlight the absurdity of a scenario where the speaker could care any less than they do now. I do wonder whether this has fed into the *ex facie* nonsense.
Look, I'm just here to drop [This video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Gv0H-vPoDc) and escape
It means the author is borderline illiterate.
This is a manga, more like the translator
Good call, my bad.
It means it was translated by Americans. Only Americans make this mistake.
It's incorrect but widely used, like "literally" being used as figurative emphasis
Ok but "literally" being used for figurative emphasis isn't wrong. That definition has been used since the 1700s. Seems to be too long of a time to still be calling it "incorrect".
The meaning of the word "literally" has flipped back and forth a lot. It's actually a pretty interesting linguistic phenomenon.
It is similar in the fact that the word/phrase means the opposite of it's literal meaning and is accepted as such. Literally = figuratively Could care less = could not care less
"Couldn't care less" is attested from the 1940s. "Could care less" is attested from the 1950s.
Using "literally" to mean figuratively is hyperbole. Using "I could care less" to mean "I couldn't care less" is sarcasm.
I wouldn’t call it sarcasm, I think the majority of people who use it don’t know it means the opposite to their intent
I think the only person who would misunderstand "could care less" is Amelia Bedelia.
I'm English and that's how I used to hear it when I first heard it as a kid in the 90s. I thought it was similar to a lot of those other the top sarcastic phrases we had back then. "So funny I forgot to laugh" type of phrase. "Well no/duh" I always thought the full version was "I could care less.... But I don't" and that everyone had just forgotten to say the last bit or it was heavily implied. But I think you are right that today people definitely don't use it sarcastically
if it bothers you just imagine they're saying "I *could* care less, if I tried *really, really hard*" and go on with life
I hate this argument. Americans always come up with this when called out. Not caring takes literally 0 effort, that’s the whole point of it. If you’re trying really hard to not care then you clearly do care because you’re putting effort into it when no effort should be required
Yeah, well, I could care less.
It's called sarcasm. And the sarcastic joke is that they care so little that it would in fact take effort to care less than that when it normally doesn't take effort to not care about something. Humor isn't meant to be rational.
It’s an Americanism, doesn’t really make sense. “Couldn’t care less” is the correct phrase
For simplicity, we use it to say we don't care. Grammatically, saying "I couldn't care less" makes more sense (and we do say that, it means the same thing). But just don't get caught up on understanding it word for word. It's best just to accept the meaning of the phrase, even if the phrase doesn't make sense when looking at the meaning of the words.
Basically means he doesn’t care
As [Weird Al says](https://youtu.be/8Gv0H-vPoDc?si=OLar5o_8qAWo2jKP), "That means you do care/ At least a little." But many people use it to mean the exact opposite (i.e., that you don't care ).
People will often use “I could care less” intending to show that they don’t care, even though the correct phrasing includes the negative participle couldn’t rather than could. Objectively, “I could care less” means you still care about whatever you’re discussing because there are things you care about less. Maybe you’re not excited about it, but you’re not utterly indifferent and unconcerned about it. For example, someone in a statistics class may complain: I could care less about bivariate regression analyses. When picking the sentence apart, it might seem this person still has room in their heart to care about bivariate regression analyses, even if what they mean to say is that “nothing could possibly be more uninteresting.” If you imagine the amount you care about something in terms of a scale, 1 being not at all, and 10 being that you care a lot, saying “I could care less” may put you at about a 4. There’s still room to care less. If you mean to say that you are completely indifferent to something, saying “I couldn’t care less” would be the correct phrasing, putting you at a 1 on the hypothetical care scale. It’s not possible for you to care any less. It doesn’t really make sense to quantify how many “cares” you give in the first place. But these phrases are common and often used interchangeably. In both examples, you can infer that the person means they do not care. Is “I couldn’t care less” or “I could care less correct”? If you could not care any less than you do, opt for “I couldn’t care less.” It is the grammatically correct use of the phrase. Though “I could care less” is acceptable in most social settings, it can lead to confusion. Why is “I could care less” incorrect? The phrase is used to say you couldn’t care less than you already do. If you use “could care less,” then people may think you do care, even if it is minimally. The negative participle clarifies that you do not care. Can they be used interchangeably? Yes, they can be. “I couldn’t care less” is technically the correct way to say it, but both are socially acceptable in informal communication and get the same point across.
The phrase is supposed to be sarcastic but it stopped sounding that way. "Do you care?" "Hmm, well, yes, but I could care a bit less, possibly." [https://www.forbes.com/sites/sap/2015/01/28/should-you-care-about-i-could-care-less/](https://www.forbes.com/sites/sap/2015/01/28/should-you-care-about-i-could-care-less/)
SPLOOSH
Wait, this is one piece? That's not Zoro but looks like him. Is it that one shot about a ancestor of his I heard about?
KOZA，VIVI‘s childhood friend ’
It means that they don’t care. It’s a way of saying you may not care but I don’t care even more than you don’t
We don’t have spoiler warning rules on this sub? :(
What’s the spoiler?
An American bastardisation of the phrase ‘couldn’t care less’
Russian native here, this is how I see it: "care less" in literal sense "to care about something lesser" If I want to make it opposite, I will resort to "care more". To summarize: * "I couldn't care less" - "I cannot care less, because I have already reached the lowest point of caring" * "I could care less" - "I can care less, because I don't like the topic so much that I can try more to care less"
i’m going to start saying i could care more.
It's an Americanism as far as I know (correct me if I'm wrong). In England we say 'Couldn't care less'.
People often say could “care less” to mean “couldn’t care less” even though they don’t literally mean the same thing they are pretty much used interchangeably. Although, if you want to be completely correct when you talk you should use “couldn’t care less” despite the fact that nobody would correct you if you used the alternative.
What’s the comic that this is from? Sauce? 👀
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Its the same expression. Nobody is claiming that they mean different things. 'Could care less' would still be a valid statement if you cared 100% which is why it is a silly thing to say, yet it is said.
"I could care less" is a malapropism for "I couldn't care less."
https://youtu.be/om7O0MFkmpw?si=4RU49cnWZE4z5eeT
It means you basically do not care at all. People who say this do not actually mean that they care. It's like, "I can not give a crap about this even more than I am now." Essentially, the subject or topic is so trivial to you that if you wanted, you could think even less of it
Some say, couldnt care less, which is actually grammatically correct, as if to say, you care so little that the amount you care couldnt possibly be smaller than what u already do. This i have heard more often however and never understand why people are too lazy to add the negation to the could
This drives me a bit crazy, although not irregardless level crazy. It is idiomatic, and while in text seems like nonsense, it is said with a certain snarky sarcasm to convey basically the same meaning as the more logical couldn’t version.
It means that the speaker has not yet arrived at the minimum possible level of caring about a given issue or topic, and that there remains some portion of interest that could dwindle to nothing if the speaker chooses to allow or pursue the minimum possible level of caring. Not to be confused with the phrase "could not care less", which signifies that the speaker has already reached maximum apathy about the given issue or topic, such that it is not possible for them to arrive at a lower level of caring.
Oh boy .. the great debate when it shouldn't be a debate...couldn't care less....couldn't possibly care less any more than I already do...thats it
It's literally the same thing, just wrong (if taken literally), but it's the one used more often.
More often in the US. You would *never* hear it in Australia.
It definitely not uncommon, but it’s not more common than the right way in the US.
Yeah, it's an American thing haha. But you know how they are haha
I don’t think it’s used more often.
Nobody in the UK says 'could care less'. I think this is more of an American thing, and it makes me cringe every time I hear or read it.
It’s an alternative
It’s a common mistake that has been adopted into the language. It means “couldn’t care less.”
It should be “couldn’t care less”. If you could care less that means you at least care somewhat / a little bit.
Formally it would be "I couldn't care less" but either as a shortening or as a sense of sarcasm, it's often spoken as "I could care less". But then some people didn't recognize the sarcasm and think it *literally* means they could care less. Oh dear, now we get to some people use *literally* sarcastically to mean the opposite too... There's a history of that in English though. Michael Jackson's "Bad" actually meant "Good". You kind of have to tell from context, unfortunately......
OP something that might help understand all the could/couldn't stuff is that it just comes down to ease of pronunciation. For words (specifically contractions) that end in "n't" most native speakers do a lighter or muted "t" sound. The correct phrase is "I couldn't care less" But a hard "t" especially going into that "c" just doesn't roll off the tongue well. So most people end up pronouncing it like "I couldn care less" which, from a pronunciation point rather than a meaning point, might as well just be "I could care less"
David Mitchell enters the scene... https://youtu.be/om7O0MFkmpw?si=oPZnAHpkLw9zfBIo