Richard-Business Eng
Professional Teacher
" I could care less" versus "I couldn't care less"... which expression do you use and say?

This misuse of the epxression drives me nuts :)

The following is an excerpt from: 

Mignon Fogarty, Grammar Girl... (giving credit where credit is due)


People say they could care less when, logically, they mean they couldn’t care less.
The phrase "I couldn’t care less" originated in Britain and made its way to the United States in the 1950s.
The phrase "I could care less" appeared in the US about a decade later.
In the early 1990s, the well-known Harvard professor and language writer Stephen Pinker argued that the way most people say could care less—the way they emphasize the words—implies they are being ironic or sarcastic.
Other linguists have argued that the type of sound at the end of "couldn’t" is naturally dropped by sloppy or slurring speakers.

Regardless of the reason people say they could care less, it is one of the more common language peeves because of its illogical nature. To say you could care less means you have a bit of caring left, which is not what the speakers seem to intend.
The proper "couldn’t care less" is still the dominant form in print, but "could care less" has been steadily gaining ground since its appearance in the 1960s.

So...
Do you use either form of this expression?
Which one do you use?
Which one should you use?

Jun 26, 2017 11:57 PM
Comments · 28
4
I say "I couldn't care less." I agree that "I could care less" is illogical if the meaning that you're trying to convey is that you don't care. Pinker's explanation doesn't convince me. I would guess that people just accepted "I couldn't care less" as a unit (carrying the meaning "I don't care") and stopped thinking about its literal, word-by-word meaning; after a while, the unit lost the n't part without losing its original meaning and without anyone noticing. (Well, obviously, some people noticed. ;-) ) 
June 27, 2017
2
Thanks, Richard... It occurs to me that perhaps some people may have thought that my first sentence meant that I couldn't care less about your thread...?  It's possible. Obviously, that's not what I meant. I was simply answering your question. Alternatively, people simply disagree with what I wrote. Of course, people are welcome to disagree. 
June 28, 2017
2
'I couldn't care less' is most commonly used. I never say or hear 'I could care less'
June 27, 2017
2

I always use "I couldn't care less", or I would if I were the type of person who uses that expression much. I've been seeing "I could care less" very often recently, but that expression was practically nonexistent about five to ten years ago (or at least, I've never seen it around). It used to annoy me a lot (along with "could of" instead of "could've" or "ad nauseum" instead of "ad nauseam"), but since I've finished reading Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson, it doesn't annoy me as much anymore.

I don't think "I could care less" is going away anytime soon so we'll probably have to get used to it eventually. It might be illogical, but "the exception proves the rule" doesn't make much sense in contemporary English either ("prove" used to mean "test" = "the exception tests the rule"). So maybe we should all care a little bit less, or rather, we could care less (heh).

June 27, 2017
2
I appreciate the professional opinion of Mr. Pinker, but I disagree that speakers who say, "I could care less" are using it ironically. Judging from my experience, I think they just don't know they are making a mistake. This is also one of my pet peeves and I always say, "I couldn't care less".
June 27, 2017
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Richard-Business Eng
Language Skills
Chinese (Mandarin), English, French
Learning Language
Chinese (Mandarin)
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