COULD CARE LESS, OR COULDN"T ?

[gimygirl 0]

[eap620 0]

The other day my friend was showing me a text message that she sent to some guy that she likes and I found it so funny how she misspelled one of the words. What she was supposed to say was "I was bummed last night that we didn't get to hang out." My friend wrote "I was bumbed last night that we didn't get to hang out." She was mortified when I pointed this out to her.

I'm definitely not always proper when it comes to my English, especially coming from Texas and now living in Belize. But one word that people often pronounce incorrectly that gets on my nerves is saying "member" instead of saying "remember."

[Cristy 4]

To say one couldn't care less means that one is totally disinterested and one doesn't care at all.

'couldn't care less' is a double negative. it means I 'could care'

No it isn't. There are not 2 negatives there. IF it was I couldn't not care less it would be a double negative.

Correct grammar requires you to say "If it were"...requires the subjunctive tense.

(That's right. It never ends. )

[TracyTN 237]

Can I just say that before Tracy and I were an item, we chatted on the same message board. One day she pulled me up on my spelling, (jokingly of course), and signed off as The Grammar Police.

Some time later she misspelled the word "misspelled", I jumped all over that one and signed off as Captain Chas Iymchekin of The Grammar Police Internal Affairs. Shortly after this we fell in love and here we now are on another message board, sorting out me emigrating.

Hee hee, that is very cute I KNEW there was something magical about grammar. It brings people together!

I also quite enjoy the fact that it was grammar (or lack thereof) that brought us together.

I'll always love my darling Chas Iymchekin.

[dani_christine 0]

Grammar Police? Guilty as charged.

Here are a couple of icons I use on my livejournal from time to time:

Edited August 3, 2006 by dani_christine

[TracyTN 237]

Those are great!

[yabasta 0]

Surely it should actually be I could not care ANY less if we are being all proper? I too assumed it was sarcasm to say "I could care less". Kind of like saying "BOTHERED?"

while we are on the topic of things that drive us nuts can I just say that I get soooooo peeved when I here someone say: Can I aks you a question? instead of 'ask'.

and it bugs me when people say "here" when they mean "hear" although i am sure i have done it too. My own typos bug the hell out of me.

Edited August 3, 2006 by yabasta

[saturn5man 0]

Hey, friends Glad to see that we still have some life in this topic !

Thanks for all of your contributions Neil.

[Elizabethnhenry 0]

Grammar Police? Guilty as charged.

Here are a couple of icons I use on my livejournal from time to time:

That one makes me mental!!!! I can't stand it...especially from really well educated people.

To say one couldn't care less means that one is totally disinterested and one doesn't care at all.

'couldn't care less' is a double negative. it means I 'could care'

No it isn't. There are not 2 negatives there. IF it was I couldn't not care less it would be a double negative.

Correct grammar requires you to say "If it were"...requires the subjunctive tense.

(That's right. It never ends. )

Great catch!!!! If we all only spoke Esperanto.

Wandering adverb alert! If we all only spoke Esperanto, then what? Don't you mean, "If only we all spoke Esperanto"?

Good one!! That's why I love German so much - verb, adverb, etc have their specific position in the sentence. My professor always told us ZAP to help us remember - Zeit, Art, Platz - Time, manner and place - that is the order if your sentence contains those elements. In English it is quite easy to get confused as to what is modifying what.

[pedroh 21]

the funniest thing.. is that usually english native speakers mispell ridiculous, and what's the other word that i see mispelled here.. mhh..i think desperate, definitely.. and words with i's and e's in between..

[nayalamb 0]

maybe we spell words incorrectly because we are all so accustomed to spell check these days...

or maybe because in forums, we couldn't care less about spelling and grammar

[churipu 4]

Grammar Police? Guilty as charged.

Here are a couple of icons I use on my livejournal from time to time:

That one makes me mental!!!! I can't stand it...especially from really well educated people.

To say one couldn't care less means that one is totally disinterested and one doesn't care at all.

'couldn't care less' is a double negative. it means I 'could care'

No it isn't. There are not 2 negatives there. IF it was I couldn't not care less it would be a double negative.

Correct grammar requires you to say "If it were"...requires the subjunctive tense.

(That's right. It never ends. )

Great catch!!!! If we all only spoke Esperanto.

Wandering adverb alert! If we all only spoke Esperanto, then what? Don't you mean, "If only we all spoke Esperanto"?

Good one!! That's why I love German so much - verb, adverb, etc have their specific position in the sentence. My professor always told us ZAP to help us remember - Zeit, Art, Platz - Time, manner and place - that is the order if your sentence contains those elements. In English it is quite easy to get confused as to what is modifying what.

I studied German as well so I understand perfectly what you mean. And technically English has something to follow as well in order to make the sentence correct, the SVOMPT pattern -subject,verb,object,manner,place, time.

Edited August 3, 2006 by churipu

[Euro 3]

Can someone enlighten me as to why Americans almost always say I could care less when they really mean couldn't ?

To be correct, if one could care less, then there is an implication that one cares at least something (about the topic being discussed etc).

To say one couldn't care less means that one is totally disinterested and one doesn't care at all.

Has could care less always been used (in the context of couldn't) here in the US, or is it a modern phenomenon?

Just a little peeve.

Hopefully this will generate some debate away from the more fiery Off Topic discussions in VJ of late.....But, then again......

Best wishes to all.....Neil.

Probably the same reason they say.................the money turned up missing if it's missing how can it turn up??

[Elizabethnhenry 0]

Can someone enlighten me as to why Americans almost always say I could care less when they really mean couldn't ?

To be correct, if one could care less, then there is an implication that one cares at least something (about the topic being discussed etc).

To say one couldn't care less means that one is totally disinterested and one doesn't care at all.

Has could care less always been used (in the context of couldn't) here in the US, or is it a modern phenomenon?

Just a little peeve.

Hopefully this will generate some debate away from the more fiery Off Topic discussions in VJ of late.....But, then again......

Best wishes to all.....Neil.

Probably the same reason they say.................the money turned up missing if it's missing how can it turn up??

[Cristy 4]

I can't here you. Did you take you're medication? I called there mother and she said it was rediculous.

Just some of my annoyances.