One of my biggest pet peeves is when people use the phrase, "I could care less" when trying to amplify just how little they care about something. If they wanted to say that they didn't really care, then what they should be saying is "I couldn't care less." For example, if I was rambling about how excited I was to have bought a new dress and my disinterested boyfriend said "I could care less," then I could thank him for taking such an interest in my wardrobe.
I've read a few articles about this pet peeve of mine, and a common argument against it would be that it follows the form of the phrase, "I could give a damn." No, no it doesn't. This is not the same thing. These two phrases ("I could give a damn" and "I could care less") are implying two different things. To say you could give a damn means you don't give a damn, but you could, whereas saying you could care less means you do care, but you couldn't. I feel that "I could give a damn" and "I couldn't care less" are much more similar in their meanings than "I could give a damn" vs "I could care less."
I am by no means a grammar expert but the correct use of the phrase just makes a lot more sense to me. I complain about this all the time, but my friends couldn't care less. However, about this misunderstanding of the phrase, I could care less.
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