Quote:
Originally Posted by Katsunami
I still cannot agree.
Sometimes words don't follow the patterns, fair enough. However, most people know about those words, and they have always had these special meanings.
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Yeah. And most people know that
I could care less and
I couldn't care less have the same meaning.
Quote:
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You can't take out a word out of a sentence ("not", in the case of "I could care less") which basically causes the meaning of the sentence to reverse, and then say: "It still means the same because everybody will know what I mean!". In my view, that's just ridiculous and illogical. It's sloppy use of language.
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It's the same thing we do when we say the prefix
in- means one thing when it precedes
valuable and something else entirely when it precedes
conclusive . English is a sloppy language; that's just the reality.
I could care less and
I couldn't care less mean the same thing. That's just the way it is.