"I couldn’t care less! Or could I?" Topic

Ok, with the imminent release of Bohemian Rhapsody here in the states, the Queen/ Freddie Mercury biopic, I wish to make a mild jibe at my Friends across the pond.

Here's a bit of annoyance I see too often. Someone, usually an American, says, ‘I could care less!' And someone else, almost always a Brit, jumps on them with something like, ‘The expression is couldn't care less. Couldn't. Darn you idiot Yanks who don't even know your own language. Expletive!'

So on the way home tonight I was rocking out to ‘Killer Queen' when I heard it plain as day. From the mouth of Freddie Mercury, and the lead singer of one of the most famous British bands, he says, ‘Perfume came naturally from Paris, but god she could care less.'

I was about 10 years old when that came out, and that was probably my first exposure to the expression and probably why I am guilty of stating the expression that way. So there you have it. Next time you hear an American say, ‘I could care less.' It's likely Freddie Mercury's fault.

I can't keep up with these whippersnappers and their perfectly normal diachronic linguistic drift. And get off my boat*!

* Cutting bait is a useful thing to do. The full phrase is: "it's time to fish, cut bait, or get off the boat"

Farrokh Bulsara is innocent! I think you'll find that the line is:

"Perfume came naturally from Paris
For cars she couldn't care less"

Might I refer you to the following entry on UrbanDictionary.com (an American organisation from California):

"I could care less
1. It is possible for me to be less interested in the subject than I am at this moment.
2. It is not possible for me to be less interested in the subject than I am at this moment.

When unsure as to which definition should be applied, it can help to judge the person's intelligence – morons usually mean #2."

Cheers. ;^)

It puzzles me that this causes confusion. Leaving out the not/n't changes the meaning fairly obviously to something the speaker probably didn't mean.
Its obvious that to say "I couldn't have less money" is not equivilent to saying "I could have less money".

YouTube link

1:07

I've used both depending on the occasion.

The line is written as couldn't care less, but he clearly says ‘could care less.' If there's a ‘nt, he left it silent.

I not confused by the grammar, and I usually use the expression correctly, but there are times I take a Yogi Berra approach of, ‘I could care less, but that would mean putting in effort to do so.'

:p

I am an American and I have always said "couldn't"

Just don't get me started about someone saying "You can have your cake and eat it too."
But I won't hijack the thread…

I too am an American who, sometimes, "couldn't care less." However, welcome to transitional language. Hebrew becomes Aramaic, Classical Greek becomes Koine and Latin becomes Romance languages. Foreign words and phrases are introduced, meaning shift, old rules of grammar are violated, and words and phrases are garbled. This is going to go on getting worse throughout the lifetime of anyone reading this in 2018. (We've already got Old, Middle and Modern English. In a century will we have Ultra-Modern English? Post-Modern?)

Oh. And I always say "fish or cut bait" meaning "make a decision and do something." The three-way cliche is "lead, follow or get out of the way."

have you learn nothing of our history. we might write the rule books but we don't follow them. welcome just the same. looking forward to the movie!

Guess what. I don't care.

But is it "could " or "couldn't " give a…

Yeah, it's a little known fact that the actual saying really goes all the way back to ancient times, to the Battle of the Three Armies … fought between the Koodah, the Shoodah and the Woodah. :)

Dan

EDIT
Wow, I almost sounded like Cliff (from Cheers) on this post.

If you rewrite the lyric to make sense:

"Perfume came naturally from Paris
For [?] she doesn't care"

It doesn't sound right because it doesn't rhyme.

Guess that's why most of us aren't music writers… ;-)

English is no longer owned or changed by the English (was it ever?) English is now changed by 16 year olds in American tv shows beamed around the world and vacant pop stars. But as a descendant of the original Angles who settled here, I couldn't care less.

You can have your cake and eat it too."

If I have a cake … I want to eat it ! At least a piece or two.

The French language has the Academie Francaise to maintain the purity of the language, but English basically went to hell when the Normans invaded in 1066 and made French the language of court.

After that, English was the language of the common people, and they didn't care about case endings and consistent spelling and so after a thousand years -- of which the most recent 400 were spent spreading post-Conquest English around the globe -- we have the mess that we have.

About which I could care less, theoretically, but I choose not to do so.

That is to say, I do care, but only to such an infinitesimal extent that I am willing only to post this single post in an obscure internet forum -- and, I suppose, to discuss it over drinks if the subject comes up while drinking.

Foxweasel +1!