This is an All Ears English podcast episode 2127.
We couldn't be more excited about this episode.
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We'll show you how to become fearless and fluent by focusing on connection, not perfection, with your American hosts, Aubrey Carter, the IELTS whiz, and Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer, coming to you from Arizona and Colorado, USA.
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Is there something you couldn't be less interested in?
Don't just say you're not interested.
Today we share how to use less to be more extreme or more poetic in your statements in English.
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Hey, Aubrey, how's everything going?
I'm great, Lindsay.
I'm wondering, is there anything you're looking forward to?
Oh my gosh, yes.
I couldn't be more excited about my upcoming weekend.
I'm going to go to an ugly sweater party hosting one and it'll be great.
Oh, so fun.
I couldn't be more excited. for my kids walking home from school on their own.
This is huge.
I always have to walk them to school and it's tricky, or pick them up, drive and they're finally old enough.
It's very close, but still kind of scary to have kids walk home alone.
So we're right there, right on the cusp.
That's awesome.
You're on your way to freedom.
That's so great.
That's so great.
Oh my gosh.
I'm so excited to get into today's topic.
But first, guys, hit that follow button if you love All Ears English.
Our motto here is connection, not perfection.
Right, Aubrey?
We focus on human connection through language.
So hit follow if you love that.
Absolutely.
Yes.
And if you're not following, you are missing amazing episodes.
Scroll up if you missed 2109.
Fortune 100 speaker Jessica Kriegel gave us three culture questions to ask in a job interview.
That was a fantastic interview.
If you're not hitting follow, there are four episodes every week.
You might be missing some of them.
Yeah, exactly.
Okay.
So we opened today asking each other questions, right, about what we couldn't be more excited about.
What are we getting into today?
Yes, this chunk, couldn't be more, is used all the time by native speakers to emphasize.
And we also use couldn't be less to emphasize.
We got a question about this that's really interesting.
It's such a great phrase for building connection in English to share what you're super excited about in such a native, natural way to say I couldn't be more excited.
Excellent.
And we're going to start off today with a question from Zach from Taiwan.
Shall I go ahead and read the question, Aubrey?
Yes.
All right.
This is a long-time listener, and I love hearing from our long-time listeners.
I know.
Amazing.
Zach says, I've listened to your show for four years.
That is amazing.
I can remember the first time I listened.
I only understood 50% to 60%.
Nowadays, my listening skill has improved.
I can understand 80% to 90%.
That is insane.
Aubrey, so good.
That's amazing.
Yes.
I really appreciate your great work, and I also believe in connection, not perfection.
Yay!
We're on the same page in that case, Zach.
So I do recommend to my friends who want to learn English to listen to the All Ears English podcast.
Awesome.
Aubrey, could you read Zach's question for me?
Yes, absolutely.
Thank you, Zach, for all this.
This is making our day to read this.
And I love that you're sharing the podcast with friends who are learning English.
It's awesome.
So then Zach said, recently I read an article.
There's a phrase, couldn't care less.
It confused me because it has two negative words, couldn't and less.
From my instinct, two negative words equal a positive word.
However, couldn't care less actually means couldn't care, not could care.
Could you help me figure out why this phrase needs to add less after couldn't care and it still keeps the negative meaning.
Is there any other grammar like this?
Zach, amazing question.
I love this.
Amazing.
Amazing question, and Zach must be really listening to a lot of native English.
On top of all there's English, because we do use this a ton, don't we?
Yep, absolutely.
And it's a really good question.
This can be very confusing.
The tricky thing here to know is that less isn't considered a negative.
There are certain negative words, just like Zach is sharing that if you have two of them in a sentence, it creates what's called a double negative right.
And sort of two negatives equal a positive.
So we'll first give you a couple examples to make sure you're clear about what Zach's referring to.
Okay.
So for example, shall I read these examples here, Aubrey?
Yeah, let's do it.
Okay.
All right.
So...
This is a double negative that feels very much like nails on chalkboard to us, right?
So I almost can't even say it.
Nobody did nothing.
I shudder.
Right.
Yes.
And really that means somebody did something, because you have nobody and nothing creates this double negative.
Native English speakers do make mistakes with double negatives sometimes.
Children, especially as children are figuring out English, you'll hear this all the time.
But what's tricky is knowing that less isn't a negative, right?
Negatives are no, not Neither, never, no one, nobody, none, nor nothing, nowhere.
There is quite a list.
So I totally understand how Zach thought, okay, less sounds like a negative.
But it's sort of a finite list.
And then there are a lot of words that seem like they might create a negative that don't.
Right.
Less feels more like a degree.
You know, how much of something are we talking about?
That's right.
It's an adjective, right?
It's a comparative of little.
And the superlative is least.
So it just means less. smaller in size or degree.
So that's what's really the important takeaway.
Just for the grammar here is less in a sentence isn't a negative.
It doesn't create that double negative.
It's just showing, like you said, Lindsay, the degree that there's less of something.
Okay.
So we're saying to Zach and our listeners, it is okay to say I couldn't care less.
You're not creating a double negative there.
Totally fine and super common.
Yeah, exactly.
Yes.
You're going to hear it all the time.
So we're going to share a couple examples with this amazing phrase and another one that's really related, because we use this with lots of different verbs, not just care.
So this will be really nice.
Oh, it's such a good connection tool to be able to use this to emphasize.
It's so true.
I mean, sometimes when you really don't care, you really don't care.
And you need a way to say that.
And you don't want to say, I don't care.
You want to say, I really don't care.
That's connection because passion is connection in a way.
It shows people who we really are.
Yes, absolutely.
This phrase allows you to be a little more passionate about how much you don't care or how much you feel something.
So here are a couple examples.
Couldn't care less means that you don't care at all, right?
You couldn't possibly care less about something.
You care that little.
For example, I'm sick.
I couldn't care less about keeping my house clean right now.
Oh, that is such a good example.
When we get sick, that's why health becomes so important and we realize it as soon as we get sick.
Even just a common cold, like a simple cold or the flu, everything else drops out absolutely i know you have a little bit of a cold right now lindsay right do you feel like cleaning your house so i've actually got a little bit of an exception to that i'm in a place where the cold is just a little annoying but i can totally work i'm good but any any worse than this i'd be on the couch and i wouldn't care about anything you know it just saps your energy yeah and then you're like i couldn't care less about getting dressed cleaning my house nope it's true things really go into perspective really quickly yeah Yeah.
Yes.
And we want to point out this can be rude or harsh, in the same way that the phrase I don't care can be rude or harsh, because it means the same thing.
I don't care.
So let's give a mini role play to show that we have to be a little careful with this phrase.
I'll start us out.
Ready?
Yeah.
I don't think that's what happened.
Well, I couldn't care less what you think.
Ooh, harsh.
It's very harsh, right?
You're saying, I don't care what you think.
So if you're under the impression that this phrase sort of softens or lightens, how rude or harsh that could be, that's not the case.
It has the same implication as I don't care.
And it would be totally damaging at work.
You absolutely wouldn't want to use that at work.
And you wouldn't want to use it in your social life either.
I mean, it's extreme, right?
It's extreme.
So we save it, not for directly saying that to someone, but about things that we do or don't care about.
That wouldn't offend someone, wouldn't hurt someone.
Exactly.
Yeah.
So we have to be a little careful.
Definitely you can share it about something you don't want to do, something you don't feel like doing, sort of more playful, silly.
But yeah, you would want to be careful not to tell someone, I don't care about you.
I don't care about that about you.
That's unkind, right?
Yeah.
I feel like we do have a second here.
Just to mention this native phrase how natives sometimes say it.
We want to mention that.
Yes, there is a very common mistake that I know is a pet peeve for a lot of native English speakers actually is your native English speakers say I could care less instead of I couldn't care less?
And it might be partially because of what Zach was thinking like.
Oh, they think maybe there's a double negative or maybe they're just speaking very quickly.
Or they've also heard it incorrectly a lot, because This is pretty common, right, Lindsay?
Yeah, yeah.
And I do hear that a lot from native speakers.
They're saying essentially exactly the same thing.
They're saying, I don't care, right?
They're just dropping clues.
That's what they mean.
Yeah.
But if you actually think about the sentence, I could care less means, you know, I do care.
Like I could care less.
Yeah, it does.
So it's kind of...
Gives you the opposite of what you really mean to say.
Right.
So anytime you hear someone say I could care less or I couldn't care less, they're saying I don't care.
Okay, guys, it's that simple.
That's what they mean.
Yeah.
All right.
I love it.
So let's go into one other way that we use a similar construction.
What is it, Aubrey?
Yeah.
So we do this with lots of different verbs.
So we'll give an example of couldn't be less.
Maybe you'll say I couldn't be less amused or interested.
It means the same as I am not.
I am not amused.
I am not interested.
That's a really fun way to emphasize.
Yeah, it just means there's no lower that you can go in terms of amusement than where you're at right now.
I might say this about my children if they were misbehaving.
I couldn't be less amused by their behavior.
And it means the same as I am not amused.
I do not think their behavior is funny.
But it's just a more...
Interesting way to say that.
It's more interesting.
Your level of amusement is on the floor, right?
You hit the floor.
So I couldn't be less amused by their behavior, right?
And then one of my favorite films, one of my favorite lines from one of my favorite films it's about time.
And this woman loses her husband, her longtime partner.
And she says to her son when she sees him.
She says I couldn't be less interested in a life without your father.
And it's so touching and sweet.
And again, just such an instead of saying, you know, I'm not interested in it.
It's a more almost poetic way to say that, right?
Yeah.
I'm trying to put my finger on that movie.
I feel like I've seen it and it was really good.
And now I can't remember.
Who's in it, by the way?
Who's in that movie?
Um, Rachel McAdams is the lead and she, I should know the name of the actor who she's married to.
He's British.
He's amazing.
You'll have to go back and watch it again.
It's, It's by the same director and writer as Love Actually.
So sort of the same feel a little bit if you like Love Actually, but not a Christmas film.
Okay.
I'll check it out.
Beautiful.
I'll check it out.
I love this movie.
Good stuff.
And then we sometimes use this to clear up a misunderstanding and to emphasize something.
For example, are we going to show that in the role player?
Yeah, let's show a little role play to show that.
You start us out, Lindsay.
All right.
So you're upset?
No, I couldn't be less upset.
I'm actually thrilled.
Okay.
We do this to clear up a misunderstanding.
Lindsay thought I was upset about something instead of just saying, no, I'm not upset.
To emphasize that, I'd say, no, I couldn't be less upset.
And that means I'm the opposite of upset.
I'm actually really happy about this.
Right.
If you think about it too much, it's easy to get confused with this less thing.
So it's almost something.
You just have to kind of learn it as a chunk guys as a way of speaking, and then understand what it means and just create your own phrases that you use a lot right.
So for example, here's some examples of what we could put into our vocab, right?
Have, right?
Using the verb have, I couldn't have less time to get this done.
Okay.
Yes.
Right.
And you're emphasizing that you really don't have a lot of time.
And just instead of saying, I don't have enough time, you say, I couldn't have less time today.
Yeah.
Yes.
Or this is a good one.
Maybe you come back from a long day.
What would you say?
Like if you feel tired, you could say, I couldn't feel more tired right now.
It means the exact same thing as I feel tired.
Yes.
But it's just this fun native expression.
We use this with lots of different verbs.
Good.
Or now the next one would be show.
So tell me about this one a little bit.
Give me a little context.
Maybe you could say he couldn't show less interest or he couldn't show less concern.
So this is always going to be about someone saying with the emotions they're showing through their face or their eyes, because we're not talking about what they're saying, we're talking about what they're showing.
So this means he doesn't look concerned at all. right?
It couldn't be any lower.
Yeah, any less.
Okay.
Yes, like maybe someone's at a play, and they look really bored and you turn to your partner and say wow, he couldn't show less interest.
It just means like he seems really uninterested.
Right, right.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Not good.
Or looks, appearances, right?
And that's exactly the same thing.
She couldn't look more bored, right?
So she's extremely bored looking.
Yes, it's clear.
Her appearance, it's clear that she's bored with whatever's happening.
If you're in a meeting, you want to avoid this, right?
Right, right, right.
On your phone, clear on your face that you're bored.
Or even if you're not on your phone.
A good bonus for our listeners.
Today, eyes are glazed over right.
You are looking at the balls or you're looking at your team, but you're like oh, you could tell there's nothing there.
There's nothing behind the eyes.
That's great.
You don't have to be looking at a phone.
You can see it on a person's face when they couldn't look more bored.
Eyes are glazed over.
Write that one down, guys, as a bonus today.
That'll probably be in the iOS Android app, right?
We like to highlight key vocabulary words in the app.
Aubrey, do we have a takeaway today?
Anything?
Yes, you guys, adding less like this to create these chunks is a great way to emphasize.
As I'm sure you noticed as Lindsay and I chatted, the intonation changes.
The intonation is important to make sure that your meaning is clear.
But practice these because it is a great way to connect, to emphasize in this way.
Yeah, I love it.
I love it.
Good to be specific.
Good to.
Just don't get too tied up in analyzing each individual part of this phrase.
That's where it gets confusing.
It causes you to think too much.
Just remember them as chunks.
Use them to be more precise and to be more interesting right, you said in the episode a little more poetic.
I love that.
Yeah sometimes, when uh, one of these is used, it is.
It makes it sort of more beautiful and more meaningful what you're saying.
So lots of different ways that we can use this to add less clear up misunderstandings, speak a little more beautifully or just to emphasize.
All right.
Good stuff, guys.
Hit follow on the show and we'll see you back here very soon.
Aubrey, have a good day.
You too.
See you next time.
Bye.
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