“Cant be arsed” or “can’t be asked”

[2ApplesShortOfABasket]

I didn’t realise until recently that people use one term or the other. If you say one of these terms, which one is it?

I say one, friend says another, we are both convinced our way is said more than the other.

I can't be asked to read this thread

Can't be asked? No. What does that even mean???

That was my first thought

Rest bite (for respite) has a certain poetic sense to it though. For exhausted carers, no one is giving you the amount of rest you need, like a full meal to satiate you, but you can have a little bite of rest. I thought it was a joke people were making the first few times I heard it, rather than an error.

The thing with respite is that it’s an uncommon word, people are just making it sound like words they know.

Anybody old enough to remember Worzel Gummidge and his 'telling bone'? People using "defiantly" when they mean "definitely" bug me. And of course it's "Can't be arsed".

Well they both start with an “ah” sound and end with a “d” sound if you have a southern but non-rhotic accent.

If you’re a northerner “arsed” starts with an “ah” sound and “asked” with a short “a” sound as in the middle of “tap”.

We just say CBA😃

Everyone is picking up everyone else's text mistakes and perpetrating them, because nobody reads books.

Wasn't it 'a thing' some time ago for teenagers to use the word 'book' instead of 'cool' - as in "Wow, that's really book!" - originated because of the tendency of to change 'cool' to 'book'?!

I seem to recall people also using 'pwn' instead of 'own' for a time - especially as in the slang phrase 'to own somebody' (to steal a march on them) presumably because somebody very influential once made a prominent typo?!

Who the feck says asked?!!

When I was a child I thought it was asked (don't ask me to do anything, I can't be asked) until I got in trouble for using the phrase and discovered it was in fact arsed 😳

I remember quite gleefully telling my mother when I was about 14 that my French teacher had said she “Can’t be arsed” with giving titles for pieces of work and that we should just crack on doing it. (It was the closest I’d ever heard to hearing a teacher swear.) My mother got terribly flustered and said, “Oh no; I’m sure she wouldn’t have said that. She must have said she can’t be asked; as in don’t ask her for titles”.

I was impressed by her quick thinking, but I don’t think she believed it any more than I did 😄 I’d never heard anyone say it before and, 25 years on, I haven’t heard it since!

Arsed

This. Arsed!

@allthemiddlechildrenoftheworld

You might enjoy this!

Perpetrating -to carry out or commit a harmful or illegal act.

I stand by it.

Is this a bit like hearing "of" in would've so eventually saying it as "would of"?

I've heard both. Happy with both.

I've heard asked in Mcr.

How can you be happy with "asked" when it makes no sense whatsoever.

That is what is so stupid and annoying, people saying a phrase and not even bothering to think whether it makes sense or not. All the people that say "another thing coming" are another example.

Exactly. So those who think it's asked are wrong and have another think coming to get it right. That poster, and me, are saying arsed and think are both the correct options.

The think v thing irritates me.

First think then think again.
I've heard people say it can't be think because you wouldn't say you've got another think coming, you'd say you've got another thought coming.

But we do use think in that sort of way - I had a really good think about that earlier.

Let me have a think about it and I'll get back to you.

That's a mistake. If you ask me you should have another think about it.

When you take a moment to consider all the ways you'd use think you realise that yes, another think coming does actually work.

And anyway, the full version is "If you think that, you've got another think coming".

Obvious, really.

Why would you be happy with right and wrong?

😁