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I want to know the American version of “I can’t be bothered.” I heard that Americans don’t use this phrase that much.

I’ve been googling this and all I get are phrases like “I couldn’t care less” and “I don’t give a [something]” but these are not it. They have totally different meanings.

“I can’t be bothered” means that I’m too lazy and don’t want to put the effort to do something. For example, when I can’t be bothered doing my homework, it’s not that I don’t care about the homework. I want it done and I want to do it but I’m lazy and don’t feel like doing it.

I’m sure Americans also experience this kind of feeling daily. What would an American say in this kind of situation?

BosonFermion
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    Regardless of what you may have 'heard', you are mistaken if you think Americans don't say 'I can't be bothered'. – Michael Harvey Aug 28 '23 at 07:56
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    American here, we definitely say "can't be bothered." – Esther Aug 28 '23 at 13:37
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    The thing from England we don't say is "can't be arsed" which means the same thing. – Almo Aug 28 '23 at 19:56
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    I was going to write that as an answer - about Americans using the phrase - but I can't be ... NVM... – davidbak Aug 28 '23 at 20:23
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    They say "yeee haaaw, I can't be bothered already, y'all". – Astralbee Aug 28 '23 at 22:32
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    If you're from an urban envronment you might say "ain't nobody got time for this". – John Douma Aug 29 '23 at 03:58
  • If we were in SE English Language Users or Writing still, where would you get 'it’s not that I don’t care'? In ELL, how is that more than coinfusing? – Robbie Goodwin Aug 29 '23 at 20:45
  • #AintNoBodyGotNoTimeFoDat? – Mike Nakis Aug 29 '23 at 20:46
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    @Almo And as an American, even though I never say it, the abbreviation "cba" is so convenient that I cba not to use it... – Unrelated String Aug 30 '23 at 00:32
  • They probably say "I can be bothered", because its like oppositeland when it comes to expressions about not doing things. e.g. from above: "Ain't nobody got time for this" = "Everyone has time for this." – Matt Aug 30 '23 at 08:55
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    @Matt "Ain't nobody got time for __" entered the wider US lexicon after a video of an African American woman who was interviewed after she escaped a house fire went viral (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ain%27t_Nobody_Got_Time_for_That). This was an instance of African American Vernacular English, in which double (or more) negatives are commonly used to indicate (or intensify) simple negation; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African-American_Vernacular_English#Negation . – Tiercelet Aug 30 '23 at 14:00
  • It's going to be hard to get a definitive, universal answer for this question. The way different Americans express this will vary a lot depending on the region, age, and class of the speaker, as well as how formal they're being. – Tiercelet Aug 30 '23 at 14:58
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    Americans couldn't be bothered to come up with an alternative phrase :) – Jeremy Friesner Aug 31 '23 at 16:19
  • My feeling is that "I couldn't be bothered" is more common than "I can't...", but both are certainly correct and natural. – gotube Sep 05 '23 at 23:59

9 Answers9

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Americans say “can’t be bothered.” It’s a common idiom here. Wherever you heard that Americans don’t say it, is wrong.

KRyan
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  • Agree, it's common here. Some cruder people do seem to prefer "can't be arsed" though. – Kevin Aug 30 '23 at 18:51
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    @Kevin Yep, that's an Internet-ism. A weird one, because we don't otherwise say "arse." – Grault Aug 30 '23 at 20:32
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    @Grault It's a Briticism rather than an Internetism. Us Brits have been saying "can't be arsed" for years before the general public got their hands on the internet ;). Indeed the phrase sometimes gets misinterpreted by Americans as "can't be asked", which actually has a fairly similar literal meaning to "can't be bothered" now that I stop and think about it... – Muzer Aug 31 '23 at 08:47
  • This is the correct answer. This phrase is quite commonly used in America and everyone will understand it. – reirab Aug 31 '23 at 15:08
  • The American variant for "can't be arsed" is the even-more-crude "can't be f*cked". Used when the speaker really wants to emphasize not just low energy or laziness, but also disdain for whatever they're being asked to do. – Ti Strga Aug 31 '23 at 17:47
  • @Muzer I recognize that, but in the American context it was introduced primarily via the Internet. – Grault Sep 27 '23 at 04:41
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"Can't be bothered" (or its ruder cousins) wouldn't seem strange to me (west coast USA), but it wouldn't be something I'd think to say naturally. I might say this as

  • "I should ____, buuuuut..." or
  • "I gotta ____, but that sounds hard"
  • "I have to ____, but y'know.."

"I gotta get up and get dressed, buuut..." means that I have an obligation to get up, and no real excuse for not doing it except that I'm lazy and don't want to do it.

Kaia
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Several things:

  • As others have noted, Americans will say "I can't be bothered to do my homework." In my experience, it's rare, but I'd expect the vast majority of Americans to understand this phrase without a second thought, even if they don't use it themselves.
  • "I could/couldn't care less" actually might be used in this context. More likely as a response, though. Such as, "You didn't do the homework?" "No, I could care less about algebra."
  • To connote the apathy that I think you're looking for in an alternate phrase, I'd suggest I blew it off. As in, "I was so tired after work last night that I totally blew off all of my homework."
  • Just as likely is a simple statement that they didn't do the thing, perhaps with an intensifier. "I totally didn't do my homework last night. I was just too tired."
Todd Wilcox
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    Note that while "I could care less" is quite commonly said, that's not really what people mean... "I could care less" indicates that you care enough that it would be possible to lower the level of caring - what most people mean is "I couldn't care less", indicating that the level of caring is so low, it would be impossible to lower it further. – FreeMan Aug 29 '23 at 14:28
  • @FreeMan https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/eb/qa/What-is-the-Difference-between-I-Couldn-t-Care-Less-and-I-Could-Care-Less- – D_Bester Aug 29 '23 at 14:29
  • Thank you, @D_Bester, for supporting evidence. – FreeMan Aug 29 '23 at 15:09
  • @FreeMan If the best you can say about something is that you could, at least in theory, care even less about it than you currently do, it's not exactly the most rousing endorsement. – Ray Aug 29 '23 at 15:59
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    @FreeMan It's an idiom. Idioms don't have to make logical sense. I could care less and I couldn't care less are both equally valid. " "I could care less" indicates that you care enough that it would be possible to lower the level of caring" No it doesn't. Not any more than "It's raining cats and dogs" indicates that felines and canines are falling out of the sky – Kevin Aug 29 '23 at 18:41
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    No @Kevin, you're wrong. Your analogy of it not "making sense" is just wrong. It's raining "cats and dogs" has a historical context that gives it a "logical reason" for existing. The subject idiom here clearly developed formally originally as could *not* care less. Your analogy would be better akin to saying that speakers are now saying "it's raining kitties and puppies", because the they couldn't remember the general terms "cats and dogs". As a collective you can try that, but as anything other than a joke, you will meet fierce resistance by those who practice it as "raining cats and dogs" – Jon Aug 29 '23 at 19:19
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    @Jon Your comment isn’t 100% clear to me. I will say that "I could care less" and "I couldn’t care less" mean the exact same thing. There is no logic to it that I am aware of. – Todd Wilcox Aug 29 '23 at 21:27
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    @FreeMan It’s entirely possible that "I could care less" is short for "as if I could care less", meaning, "there’s some hypothetical reality where I could care less, but that’s not the reality we’re in right now." – Todd Wilcox Aug 29 '23 at 21:30
  • ToddWilcox there is a very strong logic, and it's indicated exactly by @FreeMan's comment. The opposite is what's called an "oxymoron" -- used unironically by quite a few people, but regardless of its usage, it's still an oxymoron nonetheless. Your "hypothetical" scenario offers no sense to make such a remark. – Jon Aug 29 '23 at 22:08
  • @Jon I’m glad you’re here to make sure we have the most accurate information about modern American English usage – Todd Wilcox Aug 29 '23 at 22:23
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    @Jon well, since we're being pedantic, that's not really an oxymoron, which is a word or phrase with a self-contradiction (e.g. wise fool, which is incidentally the literal etymological meaning). "I could care less" is not a phrase containing a self-contradiction. It's a phrase whose literal meaning is opposite from what's normally intended. – PC Luddite Aug 29 '23 at 23:17
  • @Jon "I could care less" is an example of hyponegation, and is proscribed by some prescriptivists, but since there's no official governing body for the English language, there's plenty of room for disagreement on what one considers "correct". Like it or not, the phrase is most commonly used with an intended meaning that is identical to "I couldn't care less". – PC Luddite Aug 29 '23 at 23:23
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    @Kevin While that's technically true, and it is an idiom, it's also one that comes from a corruption, which will still always bother many of us ;) – Asteroids With Wings Aug 30 '23 at 07:16
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    Note that "I could care less" is a US-only corruption. The first few times I heard this I was in my late teens and interpreted it as a deliberate riff on the more common phrase, where the speaker was saying that they did in fact care. It was only when I'd heard it enough times with enough context that I realised my mistake. If your goal is to be understood, best avoid colloquialisms that could be interpreted to mean the exact opposite when there's already a version that's more common and can safely be read literally. – Nye Aug 30 '23 at 10:36
  • @Nye Interesting. I grew up only hearing “I could care less” and was either a teen or an adult the first time I heard “I couldn’t care less” and it sounded wrong at first until I realized that technically it made more sense. – Todd Wilcox Aug 30 '23 at 10:41
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    @Jon Do you get similarly upset about "head over heels"? – Kevin Aug 30 '23 at 15:02
  • @AsteroidsWithWings dropping a negative or inverting the expression so it no longer makes sense is very common with idioms, but "I could care less" seems to bother people the most, maybe because it's relatively recent. Phrases such as "fat chance", "I got [didn't get] squat", "that'll teach you [never] to do that again" don't seem to get any criticism – PC Luddite Sep 12 '23 at 00:03
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Native American English speaker here; "I can't be bothered" and its variations are phrases I would use, and it wouldn't be strange for me to hear this coming from others. However, I would say that it doesn't necessarily come with the implication that the task being discussed is one that is of importance. "Blew it off" definitely comes with that implication.

brainandforce
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As a native speaker of American English, I would not find it at all odd to hear someone say that they "can't be bothered". This feels like perfectly understandable American English to me. Other similar phrases which spring to mind are of the form

I would [do a thing], but...

  • I can't be bothered.
  • I can't be arsed.[1]
  • I don't feel like it.
  • I don't wanna.
  • I won't.
  • ain't nobody got time for that.
  • ...meh.
  • ... ... ... .
  • [rolls eyes].
  • [shrugs and walks away].

[1] This is probably more British English than American, but I use it quite frequently, so I'm going to include it on the list.

Xander Henderson
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  • I've heard "cbf" or "can't be f**ked" from more vulgar American English speakers (possibly has Australian English origins). – leetbacoon Aug 31 '23 at 15:23
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    @leetbacoon I almost put that one in there, but am not entirely sure about the culture of this particular SE site, vis-à-vis profanity. :D – Xander Henderson Aug 31 '23 at 17:05
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It's definitely a phrase people use but I think maybe what you are referring to is that, at least to my ear, it can come off as a little rude. That is, it can imply that something is beneath you. I'm not sure how it's used elsewhere but it's not something I would say to a request from someone. It seems a little passive-aggressive to me and I would tend to say 'no' in a much more direct (and perhaps more colorful) way.

JimmyJames
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I want it done and I want to do it but I’m lazy and don’t feel like doing it.

You were so close!

Phrasings along the lines of "... but I didn't feel like (doing) it." are very common for expressing this kind of "too lazy to do something that you want-to/need-to/ought-to do" sentiment. (At least to my Midwestern US ear.)

UK: "I really need to go pick up a few things at the shops, but I can't be bothered."
US: "I really need to go pick up a few things from the store, but I don't feel like it."

DotCounter
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American English speaker: The answers that "can't be bothered" is and is not a common American phase are both sorta correct.

Americans would use the logically equivalent "I won't bother" or "I didn't bother".

"I didn't bother doing X" usually means something along the lines of "I treated X as optional or unnecessary" (justified or not).

  • "I didn't bother doing my homework last night."
  • "I didn't bother rinsing my dishes before I put them in the dishwasher."
  • "I didn't bother sorting my clothes before washing them."
  • "He got fired because he didn't bother telling his boss he would be out of town."
  • "I am not going to bother adding outside sources to this answer."
Steve
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  • Welcome to ELL. It’s preferred here that answers provide some support for claims they contain. For instance, what is your basis for saying that “can’t be bothered” use “sorta” isn’t common in American English? – Paul Tanenbaum Aug 31 '23 at 03:25
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A distinctively American variant would be:

I can't deal with this right now.

I can't handle this right now.

I can't take this right now.

These would be considered rude in usage, but so is "can't be bothered". The American version is more testy, though.

Gooseberry
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    These don't mean the same thing as "I can't be bothered". Your suggestions all involve too high a level of stress to do the action, whereas "I can't be bothered" implies apathy or laziness, not stress, as the limiting factor. – gotube Sep 05 '23 at 23:57