Sunday, 7 October 2007
My biggest "US English" peeve.
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In fact despite the unnecessary alterations to our spelling and their propensity to "verb" words, most Americans I've met have been very well spoken. One could argue that this is because most of those Americans were met in countries other than the US so I've met a cross-section of the few who actually own a passport
I can't remember which TV programme I was watching when I first became aware of this phrase but I assumed it was a slip, that the speaker had meant to say, "I couldn't care less." But no, I keep on hearing it and every time it makes me twitch involuntarily with rage. I wouldn't mind so much if I only heard it used by guests on 'Springer' and MTV morons like Ashton Kutcher but in the past I've heard it used by Jon Stewart, Jerry Seinfeld, Michael Moore, Larry David and more. These are clever people!
It came as a relief, therefore, when I found this neat little diagram on Flickr.
Well done Meredith G, GrammarBlog salutes you. Now all you have to do is spread that message to the other 214,999,999 English speakers in the US. Good Luck.
**Update: Meredith has got in touch to say she found the diagram at Incompitech. How very honest and gracious of you, Meredith, others might have been tempted to ninja the glory for themselves (and yes, I know I've used a verbed word after complaining about it in the post).
I'm not going to have an anti-American rant. I realise that the US is poorly represented in the world grammar league (how I wish that existed) due to the misfortune of having a leader who seems to have missed out on his natural calling of becoming a P.E. teacher.
In fact despite the unnecessary alterations to our spelling and their propensity to "verb" words, most Americans I've met have been very well spoken. One could argue that this is because most of those Americans were met in countries other than the US so I've met a cross-section of the few who actually own a passport
– but let's not split hairs. There is one Americanism that drives me absolutely potty (actually there are a few but I promised not to have a rant).I could care less.How can an entire nation not realise that the above phrase means you do care?
I can't remember which TV programme I was watching when I first became aware of this phrase but I assumed it was a slip, that the speaker had meant to say, "I couldn't care less." But no, I keep on hearing it and every time it makes me twitch involuntarily with rage. I wouldn't mind so much if I only heard it used by guests on 'Springer' and MTV morons like Ashton Kutcher but in the past I've heard it used by Jon Stewart, Jerry Seinfeld, Michael Moore, Larry David and more. These are clever people!
It came as a relief, therefore, when I found this neat little diagram on Flickr.
Well done Meredith G, GrammarBlog salutes you. Now all you have to do is spread that message to the other 214,999,999 English speakers in the US. Good Luck.
**Update: Meredith has got in touch to say she found the diagram at Incompitech. How very honest and gracious of you, Meredith, others might have been tempted to ninja the glory for themselves (and yes, I know I've used a verbed word after complaining about it in the post).
Labels: pet peeves, rants, top ten, US english, wrong word
posted by Gez at 10:22 PM
21 Comments:
I should have added this to begin with and I have been reminding myself to do so, but I found that diagram here.
I am, however, happy to spread the message!
Although I am an American, I have to agree. This is one of my biggest pet peeves as well. I would add "irregardless of the fact" to the list.
Make that 214,999,997. This is another American who hates it.
Unless the meaning of the phrase is "I could care less, but by so little, it's really not worth bothering."
I do find myself saying this, but not in the sense that I do not care. Rather, I mean to portray that should something occur, then I would "care less."
Anonymous 1: Yep, 'irregardless' seems to be particularly well-used by American news and sports anchors. It's another one for the list.
Tom: I'm not buying that explanation for a second, but nice try.
Kristofer: Interesting, in that context it makes sense, in a way.
I can't remember what TV programme I was watching
...which TV programme...?
Thanks, Francis. If one lives by the sword...
A lot of Americans seem to claim that 'could care less' is a sarcastic take on 'couldn't care less'.
Americans can't do sarcasm.
Is it not used as a question?
"I could care less?"
As in, is it possible for me to care less about this issue?
Just a thought.
The way I've always interpreted it is as "(like) I could care less" - either that or sarcasm. I might say "brilliant" when something's rubbish and maybe this is no different.
Although I am American I have to say that it seems as though most Americans are allergic to grammar. Whenever I correct someone they say something like, "Oh, don't be such a know-it-all." Don't be so ignorant. My pet peeve is "reoccurring", the second most famous non word in America.
Gawd, I hate that people INSIST on taking idioms and placing logic on it. Guess what? Language is not logic, nor is it math (or maths, as the British tend to say).
IT'S IDIOMATIC. Everyone knows what it means. No one is dumb enough to think that I honestly mean that I do care... In fact, I could turn the original phrase around to.
BEHOLD:
I couldn't care less.
Oh, really... then since you could not care LESS, that MUST mean you care MORE -- well, I mean, the 'not' logically negates the 'less', right? And since less is ALREADY a grammatical negative, and since two negatives equals a positive, then you MUST be really meaning that you care.
See how stupid it is to attempt logic on idiomatic phrases?
Oh, and just like idioms, parts of the phrase tends to drop off over time (ask any LINGUIST -- not a pedant grammarian -- for confirmation of this). So chances are, the phrase had been truncated, with its MEANING not lost.
"I could care less [about what you're saying than I do right now... but I really, I couldn't...]"
What it THAT'S the original phrase? How would you like to say that over and over again...? You wouldn't.
How would you like to HEAR that being said to YOU over and over again...? You wouldn't.
Lop off the extra bits, and leave on the INDICATOR. As soon as you say "I could care less", I can stop you right there -- I know what's next and more importantly, I know what you MEAN.
In fact, English isn't Latin, either, so forgive me as I run off to boldly, scornfully, and deliberately split some infinitives. (Oh, and I'm gonna use the Oxford Comma, too, while I'm at it.)
The most annoying thing for me? Non-Americans fussing over American Idioms. But I'm sure you could care less.
I'm pretty sure the not and the less don't cancel each other out to result in what you say they do. Remove both words, and it's not saying you care: "I could care." But I don't.
{Sigh.}
The complete phrase is: "I could care less, but it would be a strain."
Yes, it is incorrect and incomplete to use the first half of the phrase without the latter. It is also incorrect to examine only half the phrase!
"I could care less" has an implied sarcastic inversion...
I agree, this always bothers me. I'm an American, and I'm always dumbfounded by the ignorance of users of this phrase.
I DO care less!
As an American, I can completely relate to the sentiments in this post. I argue with other about this exact same phrase on a near daily basis. How can anyone NOT see the lack of sarcasm intended in the original use of the phrase? I don't know if I was European in a past life, but I find myself unable to spell things like "colour" and favourite", the way most Americans do. Anything else just looks and feels wrong. To make matters even more confusing, I'm a born and raised Texan! =O
Dear Heatherly, I did a search for past life european spelling and your blog post turned up. We (the Texan and Pennsylvanian) may be on to something - I struggled with the euro spelling curse from elementary school through junior high and still occasionally lapse when I'm tired. For now, chalk it up to things that make you go, hmmm, huh, and whaaa? Paige
I grew up hearing my mum (amongst other people) say "I couldn't care less" to my petty complaints as a child. Upon my first internet chatroom/forums conversations back in the 1990s, I stumbled across loads of Americans saying "I could care less", and just put it down to the odd person not really caring about grammatical context, or just simply making a spelling mistake. Now I seem to come across it more and more, and it seems to be an accepted "idiom" in the US. I'd be really interested to learn whether it is simply one or two people making mistakes, or whether it really is an accepted figure of speech over there.
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