"I COULD care less" or "I COULDN'T care less" Which is it?

@kickycan,

I'm from New York City and when I joined the Air Force I started to hear some odd things... The business with "could care less" was one... I guess this is some sort of colloquialism that has taken root. I agree it's kind of stupid but it's there. Perhaps signifies a level of education?

3 Replies

@KidHubris,

Welcome Hubris, we are in short supply here, you've arrived just in the nicotine.

I ain't speculating on education but yer right.

Try posting on new posts for some contemporaneous discussion.

0 Replies

@KidHubris,

Welcome, Kid.

It has nothing to do with level of education. We don't learn the idioms of English in school, we learn them in everyday life.

It makes perfect sense because it has acquired the idiomatic meaning where all native speakers of English recognize it for what it says, not what some folks think it's supposed to say.

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@KidHubris,

KidHubris wrote:

I'm from New York City and when I joined the Air Force I started to hear some odd things... The business with "could care less" was one... I guess this is some sort of colloquialism that has taken root. I agree it's kind of stupid but it's there. Perhaps signifies a level of education?

It signifies a failure of logic in the speaker thereof.
It calls into question the user's ability to reason.

Welcome to the forum!

David

1 Reply

@OmSigDAVID,

Quote:

It signifies a failure of logic in the speaker thereof

Why?
It could signify a use of sarcasm by the speaker.

I could care less what you think. (but not much less)

1 Reply

@parados,

Sarcasm can be dangerous.
It can be quoted back to u.

U might be held responsible for your utterances.

David

1 Reply

@OmSigDAVID,

Quote:

Sarcasm can be dangerous.
It can be quoted back to u.

U might be held responsible for your utterances.

Yeah, right!

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@kickycan,

What they MEAN is "I couldn't care less", but they aren't careful with their speech. It's a clear example of why someone else came up with the phrase, "I know you think you understood what I said, but did you understand that what I said isn't what I meant?"

And if you really want to leave someone puzzled as to whether or not you agree with them, try using the answer, " I couldn't possibly fail not to disagree with you any less." (which is my favorite dissembling to leave for someone else to disassemble.)

1 Reply

@J Lord,

Kickycan was full of ****, J Lord. Both phrases are expressions of not caring.

1 Reply

@JTT,

Americans have always had problems with English.

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@kickycan,

Couldn't care less is correct. Could care less detracts from the meaning

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@mmaille100,

Quote:

Couldn't care less is correct. Could care less detracts from the meaning

Since you know and understand both idiomatic forms, you've just proved yourself mistaken. Idioms are idioms; that's why they are called idioms. People who use them fully understand the meaning; that's why they use them.

English has many of these idioms where both the positive form and the negative form hold the same meaning.

Yeah, right.

You don't know squat = You know squat

That amounts/doesn't amount to a hill of beans.

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@mmaille100,

mmaille100 wrote:

Couldn't care less is correct.
Could care less detracts from the meaning

Yes; that he coud care less than he DOES, indicates that he cares more than zero.

David

1 Reply

@OmSigDAVID,

You know squat, Dave. You don't know squat, Dave.

Quote:

that he coud care less than he DOES, indicates that he cares more than zero.

So?

1 Reply

@JTT,

JTT wrote:

You know squat, Dave. You don't know squat, Dave.

U contradicted yourself, J; that negates your credibility.

Quote:

that he coud care less than he DOES,
indicates that he cares more than zero.

JTT wrote:

So?

So to be understood to that effect, he shoud
declare that he CARES more than zero.
He shoud avoid doubt n confusion.

David

1 Reply

@OmSigDAVID,

Quote:

U contradicted yourself, J; that negates your credibility.

This is what I was discussing with Lustig Andrei [name correct??], Dave. That you can state something that so directly flies in the face of reality shows that you truly don't understand language and how it works.

'You know squat' and 'you don't know squat' hold identical meanings.

There is no doubt and confusion wrt 'could care less' except among those who are not using their brain at all. English speakers could care less what idiots like you are saying. They know the meaning of the idiom, they know how and when to deploy it.

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@kickycan,

Couldn't

1 Reply

@sharonpustejovsky,

Repeating nonsense doesn't make it any less nonsenical, Sharon. The idioms, note the word 'idiom' - I'm quite sure that you understand what an 'idiom' is - 'could care less' and 'couldn't care less' hold the same meanings.

All one has to do is note what the central feature of an 'idiom' is.

1 Reply

@JTT,

Are you still at this?

There are two distinctly different meanings of "could" and "couldn't".

If you mean to say that you are as indifferent to a matter as can be you would say "couldn't care less". That phrase is an idiom, but to say "could care less" is merely a failed attempt to use it.
It may be that this way of failing at basic language understanding is so widespread that the failed term has become an idiom in itself, but if so it is not a matter of cultural heritage as much as social degeneration and intellectual retardation.

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@Cyracuz,

Cyracuz wrote:

it is not a matter of cultural heritage as much as social degeneration and intellectual retardation.

Don't hold back, say what you think.

0 Replies

"I COULD care less" or "I COULDN'T care less" Which is it?

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