I couldn’t care less

How do people use I couldn’t care less?

Informal and blunt, said when someone expects you to be bothered and you aren’t. It bends to any subject (“Tom couldn’t care less”, “she couldn’t care less about football”), and the past is “couldn’t have cared less”. The thing you don’t care about comes after “about”.

Also said I could not care less, I could care less

I couldn’t care less in real sentences

• I couldn’t care less.

  Tatoeba, sentence by CK, CC BY 2.0 FR

• Tom couldn’t care less.

  Tatoeba, sentence by CM, CC BY 2.0 FR

Where does I couldn’t care less come from?

The logic is simple once you spell it out: my interest is already at zero, so it couldn’t possibly drop any lower. English Wiktionary doesn’t date the first use of “couldn’t care less”, but it says the American “could care less” came slightly later and quotes it from 1967. It cites the linguist Laurence Horn (2009) for two theories about the shorter form: deliberate sarcasm, or a negative that simply got lost in speech.

Mistakes learners make with I couldn’t care less

Copying the American “I could care less”. Plenty of Americans say it and mean exactly the same thing, but on paper it says the opposite, and many listeners (especially outside the US) will call it wrong. Learners are safer with “couldn’t”.

Other English idioms like I couldn’t care less

• could care less (US)
• not give a tinker’s damn
• not give a tinker’s cuss