Could/Couldn't care less?

Ksanti

Ksanti

Ksanti

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This argument popped up on fb again...

I realise most people who bother to say one is wrong say "couldn't care less" is the correct one, but I've not been convinced either way..

Couldn't care less is almost always false. It is almost always possible for the person saying it to care less. It could be right if you assume it is always an exaggeration, but it still lacks truth.

Could care less is true. It might not be as charged as saying you couldn't care less, but, in my mind, it is admitting that "yes, admittedly, I could care less, but I still don't care all that much.", just without going to the effort of saying it.

Just me?
 
It's couldn't care less.

If someone is jabbering on about something and I say that I couldn't care less it means that I really do not care and as such I couldn't possibly care any less about what they are saying.

Well at least that's how I see it.
 
How can you not figure it out yourself? "I couldn't care less" means "I don't care at all" since when does "I could care less" mean that too?

If you can care less, then you care to some degree, so you shouldn't be saying that about something you don't care about.

It's really not hard, you're just looking for an excuse to justify the use of "I could care less" when it's not at all correct.

"I could care less" is the same as:
Escape goat
A blessing in the skies
For all intensive purposes
Disposable thumbs
Taken for granite
should have

They are all wrong and you really shouldn't try to justify them in anyway.
 
If you couldn't care less, it means quite logically you do not care at all. You could not care less, therefore you do not care.

If you COULD care less, then you obviously could care LESS about it, therefore there is some degree of care.

In practice it's a bit like a double negative in that most people who say they 'could care less' are simply illiterate and a bit dim.
 
The point is that "couldn't care less" is almost always false, whereas "could care less" isn't.

tbh I don't use either as both seem wrong to me, I just see both and whenever people contest it it's always in favour of "couldn't", when "couldn't" is always a lie.
 
Couldn't.

It's used to impart a lack of caring. Could not care less, to care as little as is possible.

"Could care less" is redundant in this context, as it doesn't specify either an excess or lack of caring, but merely suggests an amount of caring greater than the minimum.
 
Ben Harrison said:
Couldn't.

It's used to impart a lack of caring. Could not care less, to care as little as is possible.

"Could care less" is redundant in this context, as it doesn't specify either an excess or lack of caring, but merely suggests an amount of caring greater than the minimum.
Click to expand...

Read the OP.

"Could care less" could be viewed as "Yes, I could care less, but I don't care enough to go on talking about it" etc. whereas "Couldn't care less" is always false, there is almost certainly something you care less about.
 
Ksanti said:
Read the OP.

"Could care less" could be viewed as "Yes, I could care less, but I don't care enough to go on talking about it" etc. whereas "Couldn't care less" is always false, there is almost certainly something you care less about.
Click to expand...
Any phrase could be interpreted in almost any way (to have almost any meaning), if one imagines that several additional words follow it...

It's a phrase specific to a given thing which one may or may not care about.
"Do you care about politics?"
"I couldn't care less."

If taken literally, and objectively, most sentences can be considered [to be] false.
 
Couldn't care less = 0% care towards it.

Could care less = isn't really very specific? you could have anywhere between 0.01% and 100% care towards it for all we know.

therefore could care less sounds a bit daft.
 
Ksanti said:
The point is that "couldn't care less" is almost always false, whereas "could care less" isn't.

tbh I don't use either as both seem wrong to me, I just see both and whenever people contest it it's always in favour of "couldn't", when "couldn't" is always a lie.
Click to expand...

You're just making things up now. Surely saying "I don't care" is also a lie too? It means the same thing as "I couldn't care less".

As Fox said, it's generally said by those who are somewhat illiterate, though I expect a lot who do will scream "AM DUSLEKSIX".
 
Ksanti said:
Read the OP.

"Could care less" could be viewed as "Yes, I could care less, but I don't care enough to go on talking about it" etc. whereas "Couldn't care less" is always false, there is almost certainly something you care less about.
Click to expand...

But the saying is supposed to invoke the full extreme of someone's opinion on the matter at hand. It's not said or supposed to be taken literally, in the same way that "I could kill someone" is not supposed to be when expressing frustration.

Having some degree of care is not the point, is it? It's having absolutely zero amount of care, ergo not being able to care less.

The rest of us could not care less if you think otherwise or try to deem the "could" version of the statement as a viable alternative.
 
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