Very nice. Just one thing, in the UK, that last bit would have to change to “I couldn’t really care less”, otherwise it’d make no sense whatsoever. š
Really? Really, really? Me…I have no preference. I suppose you could say I couldn’t care less about the order, as long as the yanks use ours and the brits use theirs…
Maybe because the UK seems more right than the US way more of the time? (based on what KF wrote below)
I know the arguments about “could care less/couldn’t care less”, but there are times I’d use the former and mean it: I don’t care enough about the situation to have shrunk my caring down to absolute zero. There’s still a bit of caring about the situation, but not an overwhelming bit; I’m not likely to change my mind and suddenly come down on the high end of the oh-my-god-this-is-crucial-to-the-wellbeing-of-the-universe! scale. But there is still a bit of caring going on.
It’s sort of along the lines of how I feel about “I could care less” as an expression. I could care less–and be totally oblivious to the usage (or misusage). But there’s still a little twinge that makes me wonder whether someone else really could care less when they use the phrase. If I couldn’t care less about the phrase, I wouldn’t wonder about what the other person meant when he used it. But because I could care less–I do wonder.
I wish the language were a bit more precise about punctuation around quotation marks. I don’t like the absolute division between Brit and US usage of periods outside or in. I’d like to put periods where they belong in the sentence–or in the quotation. I could tell you that the key on my keyboard is labeled “Shift.” But it isn’t; there’s no period on it. But–he said, “I won’t go”. I’m sort of left waiting for the other shoe to drop. That quoted sentence doesn’t feel finished without some ending punctuation. You know how American usage handles periods when there are parentheses? That is how I wish it handled periods when there are quotation marks. Why not?
Very nice. Just one thing, in the UK, that last bit would have to change to “I couldn’t really care less”, otherwise it’d make no sense whatsoever. š
Haha! Yes. Have you seen this?
Thank you for this! I love David Mitchell but had never seen this clip before.
LOVE! Except for the ‘couldn’t’ thing, of course.
That’s awesome.
Ant, a fan of the UK order
Ant, a fan of the UK order
Really? Really, really? Me…I have no preference. I suppose you could say I couldn’t care less about the order, as long as the yanks use ours and the brits use theirs…
Yes, I am š
Weird, huh?
Maybe because the UK seems more right than the US way more of the time? (based on what KF wrote below)
I know the arguments about “could care less/couldn’t care less”, but there are times I’d use the former and mean it: I don’t care enough about the situation to have shrunk my caring down to absolute zero. There’s still a bit of caring about the situation, but not an overwhelming bit; I’m not likely to change my mind and suddenly come down on the high end of the oh-my-god-this-is-crucial-to-the-wellbeing-of-the-universe! scale. But there is still a bit of caring going on.
It’s sort of along the lines of how I feel about “I could care less” as an expression. I could care less–and be totally oblivious to the usage (or misusage). But there’s still a little twinge that makes me wonder whether someone else really could care less when they use the phrase. If I couldn’t care less about the phrase, I wouldn’t wonder about what the other person meant when he used it. But because I could care less–I do wonder.
I wish the language were a bit more precise about punctuation around quotation marks. I don’t like the absolute division between Brit and US usage of periods outside or in. I’d like to put periods where they belong in the sentence–or in the quotation. I could tell you that the key on my keyboard is labeled “Shift.” But it isn’t; there’s no period on it. But–he said, “I won’t go”. I’m sort of left waiting for the other shoe to drop. That quoted sentence doesn’t feel finished without some ending punctuation. You know how American usage handles periods when there are parentheses? That is how I wish it handled periods when there are quotation marks. Why not?
Yes! What you said (as I said to EF above). I think I like the UK way more because it seems to be more accurate more of the time.
But really, I’d rather what you said.
The language gets placement of question marks and exclamation points correct. So why not periods?
Yes! Yes, yes, yes!
Period.
I’ll chime in with the crowd who are bugged by the could/couldn’t thing…but, other than that, this ROCKS!