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The phrase "I could care less" makes more sense than "I couldn't care less." They're both idioms and therefore are both considered correct linguistically speaking.
But "I could care less" indicates you would prefer to not have to care about a subject so is expressing that you'd prefer to stop talking about it.
"I couldn't care less" doesn't indicate the current level of caring so you might say "there isn't anything in the world that will make me stop caring about my children; I couldn't care less about my children." Without the idiom those aren't contradictory. It's only because of the idiom there's an assumption the reason the person can't care less is because they don't care at all. But nothing about the phrase indicates this.
The level of concern for something with the phrase "I could care less" is indicated by context and the phrase indicates whatever someone may have assumed about one's concern from the context is actually more than the person actual concern for it.
But people will often say "I couldn't care less" is better than "I could care less". They're wrong and I could care less about their wrong opinions on idioms.
I feel people just being lazy yet again. Not sure why its such a sin to be precise when speaking/communicating.
Like how often is something that causes a problem turns out to be a simple misunderstanding.
I think phrase "i could care less" is supposed to have an "as if" in front of it. It started making a lot more sense to me when i started thinking people forgot about the beginning of the phrase.
"I could care less..." Still works if used the correct way ie "I could care less about this, so maybe stop making this so difficult?”
Suppose you could even use it kinda of threateningly, like the Darth Vader line, "pray i do not alter it any further"
Yeah but the "I couldn't care less" is missing the sentence "because I don't care at all". It's kinda how idioms work, they require you to know the meaning of the phrase before someone hears it.
Someone doesn't just say these phrases on their own. There's always a context in which they get used. If someone ends a conversation with "whatever, I could care less" it makes more sense to someone not familiar with these idioms. Having a conversation about anything indicates some level of caring about the subject. "I could care less" inidicates you don't want to care about it anymore, ie. you don't care enough to discuss it further. "I couldn't care less" might indicate to someone not familiar with the idiom that you want to continue caring about the subject at the same level, ie. you with to continue discussing it further.
So "I couldn't care less" is an idiom on the level of "it's raining cats and dogs" something that only makes sense if you're familiar with it. It really doesn't make sense without the familiarity with the idiom to understand it really means "I couldn't care less because I don't care about it at all". You drop the "because I don't care about it at all" (which is how is it's common usages) it doesn't actually make any sense.
I disagree in that people mean different things when they say "i could care less" and "i couldnt care less"
"I couldnt care less" is pretty self contained and unambiguous when i hear people use it but "i could care less" not so much.
My experience being my own, i could very well be mistaken though.
So i think "its raining cats and dogs" is not a fair comparison. Perhaps its simply too soon and it will become as settled in the future...when enough people just give up on using it. Will wait and see
!remind me 10 years