Why do people say "I could care less?"
 

I don't get it, when people don't care about something, they're supposed to say "I couldn't care less", but instead, they say "I could care less", which is completely wrong and defeats the purpose of what they're saying. It's stupid because it means there's a possibility of not caring even more for it. Then they argue against my correction when I tell them they're wrong.

Am I going insane?

Re: Why do people say "I could care less?"
 

you arent going insane it's always bugged me i just never made a thread about it

Re: Why do people say "I could care less?"
 

I agree with you. The fact that they say "I could care less" (grammatically) says that they do actually care about something, but have the potential of exercising less care than before.

You aren't the only one, buddy.

Re: Why do people say "I could care less?"
 

Seriously, it bugs me so much because then they start calling me a 'retard' for 'not knowing how to speak English' and the irony of the situation just drives me nuts. >_>

Re: Why do people say "I could care less?"
 

To insult people.

Re: Why do people say "I could care less?"
 

you guys think too much about dumb things

Re: Why do people say "I could care less?"
 

i could care less what you say pocky

Re: Why do people say "I could care less?"
 

Re: Why do people say "I could care less?"
 

i remember reading most of that

Re: Why do people say "I could care less?"
 

yo, it doesn't matter that structurally it's grammatically correct because it's tokenized as a whole to have the intended meaning, and as long as everyone implicitly agrees on this meaning it works out in the end

it's arbitrary as hell but what about language isn't?

ok peace.

Re: Why do people say "I could care less?"
 

Cause that's how they really feel. They...could...care less...what it is or how you do it. I use that phrase.

Re: Why do people say "I could care less?"
 

Re: Why do people say "I could care less?"
 

i just say "you mistake me for someone who gives a shlt" then walk away

only n00bs at life still say i couldnt care less or i could care less

Re: Why do people say "I could care less?"
 

they could care less but they don't care enough about caring any less to actually care any less

obviously

Re: Why do people say "I could care less?"
 

Tell them they're idiots even more, because they are.

"I could care less" means "I care. I care so much that there is a lesser degree of caring that I could have adopted, but I did not, because I do indeed care to a significant degree."

"I couldn't care less" means "I care to no degree. On a scale of zero to whatever, my level of caring is zero, because I do not care."

Your friends probably use moron words like "irregardless", too, I bet, because they apparently don't think about the words that come out of their mouths. Just tell them to stop and think about their words (really stop and think), and they should realize how stupid they're being.

--Guido

http://andy.mikee385.com

Re: Why do people say "I could care less?"
 

Reminds me of the term "near miss"

Isn't it a near hit?

edit: Someone should try saying. "I couldn't care more." and see what the person says.

Re: Why do people say "I could care less?"
 

It's a miss that was near. As opposed to a far miss, or a wide miss.

Re: Why do people say "I could care less?"
 

Maybe, that isn't what wikipedia says.

Re: Why do people say "I could care less?"
 

It says what? "A miss that was close enough to cause some damage" in a military context, or "Something that could have caused injury but didn't" in a safety context...how do either of those definitions disagree with "a miss that was nearly a hit"?

Re: Why do people say "I could care less?"
 

People never learn the basics about the phrases they use anymore. People have way too many learnt phrases because they don't have the grammatical accuracy to create their own. People hear a phrase, develop an understanding of said phrase, and sometimes use it incorrectly because they never broke it down to understand how every word contributes to the meaning. Anyone who uses any phrase in general isn't as clever as someone who doesn't.