This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 2160.
Careless or not careful?
What's the difference and why does it matter?
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Be careful.
There is a key difference between these two words that are related to giving people feedback or warnings.
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Hello, Lindsay.
How are you?
Hello, Aubrey.
I'm doing fantastic.
How are you?
How's it going?
Excellent.
I have a question.
This is interesting.
Do you know anyone who is careless?
Luckily, not blatantly, super dangerously careless, right?
Well, let me ask.
Do you feel like it would be different if I asked you, do you know anyone who is not careful?
No. that would be me probably in a lot of cases right i'm clumsy i'm not always careful it's different right there's a difference here yeah i can be forgetful i can leave they maybe leave us burner on a stove or something absolutely i often leave cupboard doors open i think it drives my partner crazy coming through the kitchen closing the cupboard doors every now and then standing up and hitting your head on one of them like i'm sorry i'm really terrible about that you do you guys have a real personality difference there in that way yes yeah he is very careful to always you know pick up behind himself and close cupboard doors and i'm definitely more likely to do all of these things interesting all right so we're getting into some really good stuff today i feel like what we're going to do today is going to be extremely nuanced for our high you know for our listeners at the intermediate level the b1 b2 but even for our C1 listeners, guys, super advanced, you're going to learn a real nuance today.
Really interesting.
Absolutely.
Because the average English speaker.
If you ask them what's the difference between careless and not careful?
Even native speakers might say, they seem the same.
You have to really think about it and pay attention to the nuance to tell the difference.
Yeah.
You got to come to All Ears English to find out the difference for these things, because we love to do this.
We love to go in and figure out what is the difference?
What's the meaning in tone and what you really mean behind the word.
But we have another episode to send you guys to, and that is episode 2137, called this friday or next friday how to clarify calendar dates in english.
I think this is a challenge for our listeners yes, it's true, and for native speakers as well.
There are definitely times i'm like wait, this coming friday or next friday, this coming june or next june Yeah,
And what you just said is a big hint to the key of the episode, using the word this coming or this past.
So guys, go check out that episode.
You are definitely not going to want to miss that, if you ever make plans for anything at all, which most of us do right at some point.
Exactly.
And if you missed it, you might be missing a lot of great episodes.
So be sure to hit follow here on the podcast, so that four episodes a week can just drop right into your queue.
Love that.
So good.
All right, Aubrey, should I go ahead and read Mauro's question to start off?
Yes, absolutely.
All right.
First of all, great episode 2112, When Pigs Fly.
It's awesome that we get to learn new things with you guys in just a couple of minutes every day.
Oh, you're gonna have to read this part.
Okay, yes, because he sent this to me and he's French.
So he said, I love it.
Which means I have a question for you.
Yeah, your French accent is so great.
So he said, I was watching a show and I heard the phrase, You should be less careless.
I wonder which one sounds more natural or correct for you.
Less careless or, and he said, ooh, the French version of or, more careful.
And it's from Mauro.
Amazing.
Thank you for this great question, Mauro, because this is interesting.
It's not something that native speakers think about very often, these small differences.
And a lot of this is more about the feeling behind it, the implied feeling criticism, because if someone were to say you should be less careless, that's quite critical, like there's a lot of implied you're very upset with someone's actions.
If you say that to them, oh for sure, it's much more direct and intense.
It's saying something bigger than you should be more careful, right.
So all right, let's get into it.
So are both natural and correct?
Would you say Yeah, absolutely.
I feel like I hear them both, I say them both, but the meaning is a little bit different.
We would use them in a different context.
They're not exactly interchangeable, I think.
Yeah, I love it.
I love it.
So, all right, so where do we go from here then?
What's next?
Yeah, so if we have these very simple sentences, he is careless and he is not careful.
These are different.
So let's describe how.
The word careless, what is implied there, Lindsay?
So it is more blatant.
It's more extreme, right?
It means it's a lack of attention, but a blatant lack of attention, right?
And it's a lack of attention and kind of also a lack of concern or a lack of worry.
Maybe that's the key difference, Aubrey.
I think that really is the key difference, right?
When I looked up the definitions, right?
Careless as lack of attention, concern, or worry.
So not only are they not being careful, they don't really care that they're not being careful.
That's big.
Okay.
That's it.
Because I feel like, when it comes to careful which we'll flip over to in a minute I feel like we can not be careful but kind of not realize that we're not being careful.
It can be an accident, don't you think?
More ignorance of it.
Yeah, exactly.
I agree.
Whereas careless is not accidental, right?
That's a good point.
So it's like you're not giving enough attention or thought to avoiding harm or errors, whereas not being careful feels more accidental.
Yeah.
So it also implies maybe a laziness or a lack of concern or maybe a meanness because you don't care.
Right.
Exactly.
An example might be.
You know, if you say he is careless with his appearance and rarely combs his hair, we would not say he is not careful with his appearance.
That sounds strange to me.
If we mean to imply like he doesn't care, he's kind of lazy about it.
It's just not concerned.
Yeah.
And it's more about the personality, isn't it?
Right.
Kind of paints the entire person and personality more than careful.
I think careful is probably more event based.
Right.
Right.
Or she's careless with her work and often makes mistakes.
Right.
Not good.
Not good.
Right.
And this doesn't just mean like accidentally not being careful enough.
Right.
Yeah.
If you say she is careless with her work, it's more like she also doesn't care.
Right.
I guess that's right in the word.
Less care.
Yeah.
If you flip it.
Right.
Right.
Care.
Right.
I love it.
So good.
Okay, now let's flip over to careful.
We've already kind of hinted at the differences, but is there anything here Aubrey, that we missed, that we should add to the key difference?
What is careful?
Yeah, just mostly that lack of, in the definition here, we don't have this lack of concern or worry.
Careful means like showing thought and attention, making sure to avoid potential danger harm cautious.
So the opposite, not careful, doesn't really mean not careless, right?
There's not a lack of concern or worry here.
Yeah.
It's just, I think it, you said ignorance, right?
There may be, it may be that you're not aware that you have to be careful.
So you're not being careful with something.
Right.
Exactly.
If someone were to trip on the sidewalk, for example, they weren't being careful where they were stepping.
But we would not call them careless because it had nothing to do with how much they were concerned or how lazy they were, how worried they were about that.
Really.
It's just, they weren't looking where they were walking.
Yeah, or I'm thinking about like a kid in a China shop, right?
You know that expression, you break it, you bought it?
Right.
You always hear your parents saying when they take you to like antique shop.
I grew up in New England and my parents were always taking me through stuffy antique shops.
When I was a kid
I hated it so much.
Oh, that's funny.
I feel like I heard like don't touch anything many times.
You'll break it.
You bought it, kid.
Right.
And so, yeah, that would be.
But of course, I broke things anyway.
So I wasn't careful, but I wouldn't say I was careless.
Like I wasn't running around saying I don't care if I break things, but maybe I was just unaware, I was a kid.
Oh, my jacket.
Just brush something.
Yeah.
And this brings up something that I thought about as I planned this episode that my children like.
If one of my children broke a glass, as a mother I would correct them.
I would never say, be less careless, right?
You're careless.
It feels so critical and harsh to say that.
I'm assuming that they don't care.
Whereas I would say, you know, oh, be more careful next time.
No problem.
Just be more careful in the future, because that doesn't imply this lack of worry and concern that I shouldn't be assuming about them.
Yeah, because I feel like kids, maybe until they're teenagers, they can't really be careless yet.
They don't really know.
I don't think that they have that mindset of not caring yet.
They're making a mistake in ignorance.
They're clumsy, right?
Unless they are in order to make a point and they intentionally threw the glass.
Okay, that's a different situation.
But it probably was an accident.
So I wouldn't say be less careless.
Yeah, I think that would be hurtful for sure.
Don't be so careless.
Yeah, I wouldn't say that.
No, too much, too much.
Do we have a role play for our listeners today?
Yeah, let's do a role play.
You and I are baking a cake in this role play.
Okay, sounds good.
Very hard to bake a cake.
Here we go.
Sorry.
Oh, no.
I just dropped an egg on the floor.
I'm sorry.
I'll clean it up.
Oh, no worries.
That could happen to anyone.
Oh, be careful.
The floor is wet.
Oh, yeah.
Thanks.
Okay, so this is interesting because you'll notice we did not use the word careless.
Would you ever tell an adult to not be careless?
No.
I can't imagine a scenario.
It would be an attack.
Maybe if it was a good friend and we were sitting down and they were asking for advice on their life.
But even then I feel like it'd be very blunt if I said I see that sometimes you're careless with X Y, Z.
Even that would be hard to say.
You might say it about an adult.
Like if you were saying like, I feel like she was careless with your feelings when she said this.
About an adult.
Right.
That'd be different, right?
I wouldn't tell someone that they were careless.
And so in this role play, I was trying to use, I'm like, okay, let's see, how can I use careless?
How I can, and I thought it brought up an interesting point that we wouldn't say to an adult.
Even here, I dropped an egg on your floor.
I said, I'm sorry, I'll clean it up.
I don't think you would ever say, you know, please be more careful next time.
Like I might say that to one of my children, but you wouldn't say it to an adult.
Right.
Right.
I could say about myself, if I dropped the egg, I'm sorry, I wasn't being careful.
I should have been more careful.
Right.
But you wouldn't say it to someone.
Instead, you'd say this, what you said in the role play.
No worries.
It could happen to anyone.
Yeah, exactly.
We're not trying to have any drama when we're baking this cake, because it's hard enough to bake anyways.
To be precise,
Right.
And then I did use be careful when I said, oh, be careful, the floor is wet.
But I'm not telling you like, please be more careful next time.
Don't drop the egg.
This is different.
It's something you're not aware of.
So it's a warning.
Like, be careful.
Yeah, I think if you said that, I would not want to bake cakes at your house anymore.
We'd be done baking cakes.
Please be more careful.
Okay, we can't bake a cake.
It actually makes me think of the show america's worst cooks have you?
Have you seen it?
Oh, it's good.
Oh, you've got to see it.
It's on the cooking channel really entertaining network.
It's so good and it could probably be on that show.
I could see, maybe.
I mean because ann Burrell, she's a famous chef, right.
And she's on there judging or trying to help these cooks who just have no clue what to do.
Maybe she would berate someone and you're careless in the kitchen, but it would be very extreme.
And it's in a scenario where you're ready for that kind of insult, right?
That's the point of the show.
I feel like this is something Gordon Ramsay might say on one of his shows, right?
Call someone careless because he's intentionally being rude, because it makes for good TV.
All those shows are like that, you know, absolutely so fun.
So check out that show, guys.
If you want to feel good about your cooking skills, that's a good place to go.
Yes, so guys, first of all Mauro, thank you for this amazing question.
Send in questions like this.
You guys.
If you hear two similar phrases, maybe native speakers are using them and you're not really seeing why are they choosing one over the other.
There's probably a little nuance like this that it does make a difference, like you are implying something if you call someone careless.
Yes, and this is really what we want to be learning, guys.
This is what brings us up to the 99% fluency level, up to that C1 level.
This is where we add nuance, interest, and connection to our language.
Good stuff.
Absolutely, yes, right?
So you could say this to a child, don't say it to an adult.
Be careful, be careful, right?
All right, Aubrey, good stuff today.
Guys, hit follow if you love All Ears English, and we'll see you in four episodes every week.
Good stuff, Aubrey.
Take care.
Bye.
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