X “Could Care Less”
Posted on July 22, 2008 - Filed Under Language, Media |
I’ve been meaning to blog this for months, but I kept forgetting about it, despite how much it pisses me off. The title refers to a common American phrase, for instance, “John could care less about his neighbour”, which is intended to mean “John doesn’t care about his neighbour”. All arguments about linguistic evolution aside, this is wrong!
What the speaker means to say is “John couldn’t care less about his neighbour”, which is how English speakers elsewhere say it. This accurately conveys the sense that John does not care about his neighbour, whereas the first phrasing expresses the notion that, well, John could care less about his neighbour, which logically implies that John currently cares somewhat for his neighbour, and so could care less for her, given that John already has some basic level of concern for her.
I don’t mean to sound like a grammar Nazi, but I keep hearing Americans misusing this phrase and it keeps annoying the hell out of me.
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Hear hear!