[Grammar] I could/couldn't care less ...

Hello,

I wonder why the following two sentences, one in the affirmative and the other in the negative, mean the same. The speaker is not interested in where humans originated.

1. To be frank, I could care less where our ancestors come from.
2. To be frank, I couldn't care less where our ancestors come from.

My guess is:

Both are in the past subjunctive mood, referring to the speaker's present idea. Sentence 2 is stronger in meaning in a double negative construction.

Inase

RobertJ said:

And by the way, where is the subjunctive mood?

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The auxiliary verb "could" is in the subjunctive.

I interpreted your explanation as follows:

1. I don't care now and I would care much less than now.
2. I don't care now and I wouldn't care as much as now.

Inase

I could care less about the difference between the two expressions.

andrewg927 said:

I could care less about the difference between the two expressions.

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For someone purportedly "Interested in Language", there seem to be a lot of things about language that you couldn't care less about.

I was making fun of the fact that we, Americans, use the 2 expressions interchangeably even though logic doesn't support it.

Although some people insist that "I could care less" means the opposite of "I couldn't care less", those Americans who use the first expression invariably mean the second: they are entirely indifferent on the subject.

RobertJ said:

They do NOT mean the same; they are contradictory.

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Are they? The positive form, which is a recent addition, seems to be used with the same meaning, whatever the logic of the grammar.

I'll admit I use the two interchangeably.

I rationalize it as something like "I could care less, but it would take a great deal of effort to do so and I'm not interested enough to exert the effort required to deepen my apathy. I already don't care sufficiently enough to ignore the issue."

Or something like that.

RobertJ said:

Ignoring logic ---- the difference between the mathematical mind and the average mind. It figures. Bertrand Russell would be proud. I believe he was English.

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I see the problem, but if you heard I ain't got nobody, would you really congratulate the person on their relationship status? I get the maths, but is this really a boast rather than a lament? I hadn't heard I could care less until a few years ago, and it still sounds a bit weird to me, but I do get the intended meaning, even if I couldn't bring myself to follow suit and use it.

I think there's a difference between a double negative and a single positive.
To say that "I didn't not do it" means "I didn't do it" is hardly an argument for saying that "I did it" means "I didn't do it."