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What is the difference between this ones?

Can the first one mean that she doesn't stop caring a little less as before or can it be related to the second one not first one?

She doesn't care less

She doesn't less care

2 Answers 2

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That comment thread is getting confusing, so I'll just lay it out here. The correct phrase is she couldn't care less. It literally means that she cares so little, it would be impossible for her to care any less. Couldn't is being used to say that it's impossible, she is unable to care less than she currently does. She's at an extreme of not caring. Even if she wanted to care less, she couldn't.

She doesn't care is a simple way of saying... well, that she doesn't care. You could say she doesn't care at all or something like that, to emphasise how little she cares.

These two phrases have basically the same meaning, but couldn't care less tends to imply detachment or complete disinterest. It could feel much more critical, depending on the context.

(Some people say could care less, which is a corruption of couldn't care less. Literally it has the opposite meaning, but it's intended to mean the same as couldn't care less. So if you ever see someone use it, that's (probably) what they mean.)

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"She doesn't care less." as an isolated sentence makes little if any sense. It could be used as part of a comparison, such as:

She doesn't care less than I do.

The sentence "She doesn't less care" is grammatically incorrect, and has no obvious meaning.

However, the sentence:

She couldn't care less.

is an idiom. It means "She doesn't care at all" or "She has no opinion on the matter." This idion is always used with "couldn't" never wqith "doesn't". See this definition which also says that "She could care less" can be used with the same meaning, but that is not mthe form IO know.

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  • And what about the second one with what I'm guessing?
    – Boyep
    Dec 26, 2020 at 8:37
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    @Boyep if by "the second one" you mean the second sentence in he question ("She doesn't less care") That is just wrong and has no meaning at all in standard English. I don't understand what you mean by "with what I'm guessing". Dec 26, 2020 at 8:51
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    In that case, it's She doesn't care any less Dec 26, 2020 at 9:53
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    I couldn't care less, in American English is "I could care less" (with exactly the same meaning as "I couldn't care less")
    – James K
    Dec 26, 2020 at 9:56
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    It has to be "She cares less", but that doesn't mean very much on its own. You could say "She cares less than she used to," or "She cares less than you do." Dec 26, 2020 at 12:55

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