How to Write Right: How Much Less Do You Care?

Advice from our Copyeditor

When people say, “I could care less,” they’re saying something they don’t mean.

They’re saying they do care. To see why, picture a scale from zero to ten. Zero means you don’t care at all; ten means you care a lot. If you’re at zero, you can’t go lower:  there’s no such thing as negative caring. Thus, you couldn’t care less because you can’t care less than not at all.

If you’re at ten, though, you could easily care less: you could go down to nine, or eight. Even if you care just a little — level one, say — you still could care less, by going down to zero. So for complete indifference, a zero of caring, say: “I couldn’t care less.”

Illustration by Demian Johnston