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Off topic, but as a non-english native speaker the phrase "could care less" always bothers me as I read it literally to mean someone does indeed care, since the
by runeb 8y ago
Off topic, but as a non-english native speaker the phrase "could care less" always bothers me as I read it literally to mean someone does indeed care, since they can care less. Is this one of those cases where the meaning changes through actual use like "literally" now meaning not necessarily "to be taken literally"?
- enlyth 8y agoNo, people just say it incorrectly. It should be 'couldn't care less'.
- swift532 8y agoBut if enough people say it incorrectly long enough, it becomes correct, no? Not that I disagree that it hasn't happened yet. I too find it quite annoying when people say they "could care less".
- sreyaNotfilc 8y agoExactly! It really is suppose to be "couldn't care less". Meaning, that they are at level 0/100 of the caring meter. But as languages go, we tend to move towards an easier way to say the same thing. "could care less" sounds similar, means the same, and that most people associates it with the former phrase.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- scarface74 8y agoIt’s the idea of being descriptive instead of prescriptive. Could care less and couldn’t care less are equally correct according to the descriptivist. It’s like when someone says that the enemy was “decimated”. The prescriptivists would say that means they lost 10%. The descriptivists would say they lost a lot.