How do i say it

[tansor]

which is the right way of saying this. If you cant be bothered d o you say.......... I cant be asked or..................... I cant be arsed............which should i say.

[Lakitu]

I've never heard of "I can't be asked", that's not to say it isn't a phrase, it could be Regional.

I tend to say I can't be bothered or I can't be arsed.

[Quizmonster]

I'm sure the saying: "I can't be arsed" is related to phrases such as 'shift your arse', �arse about' and 'get off your arse'. That is, for some reason, it's one's derri�re that has to get involved in the activity rather than one's whole self! So, the verb 'to be arsed' is just an aspect of that and - if you "can't be" - it just means you can't be bothered to move (yout butt) and get on with it. 'Ask' doesn't come into the matter.

[londonlove]

well, as you may know, 'can't be asked' is a very common saying in the East Midlands and maybe elsewhere...it means exactly the same as 'can't be arsed' .

[Quizmonster]

'I can't be asked' is meaningless. Of course you can be asked! You're free to refuse, but there is clearly nothing to stop anyone asking you to do something.
My suspicion is, therefore, that anyone from the East Midlands who does say 'I can't be asked' has simply misheard the words. The very fact that this question has been put here on AnswerBank is proof of just how easily that can happen.
'I requested his help but he didn't bother his arse' is another example on the same lines of that part of the anatomy being used for the whole body. Could that read 'I requested his help but he didn't bother his ask'?

[burnhal]

sounds like the East Midlands couldn't be arsed to listen properly when thye first heard the syaing.............

[Quizmonster]

Pretty much my thoughts, too, Burnhal. I had two takes on it actually...
a) Some East Midlander noticed someone from elsewhere saying 'I can't be arsed' and misheard it as 'I can't be asked' and that then spread around his region...or...
b) Londonlove noticed East Midlanders saying 'I can't be arsed' and misheard it as 'I can't be asked.'

It all reminds me of how generations of church-going children imagined they were singing about a visually-challenged creature called Gladly. Thus they sang 'Gladly my cross-eyed bear' when the line of the hymn actually was 'Gladly my cross I'd bear.'
We see the same thing nowadays when people write 'could of' when they mean 'could've'...ie an abbreviation of 'could have' ...just because they sound alike.

[tansor]

When i put the question on answer bank it was because i was hoping it was asked and not arse so i could still use the saying and hoping it wasnt rude. I do lister thank you and am not from the midlands didnt want to upset

[TCL-MUMPING]

I think it's similar to questions about why some folk say "arksed" rather than "asked." Some folk pronounce "path" wi a long "a" and some may represent that as "parth" even though the "r" is not sounded. The "arksed" is surely spelt "aksed" but pronounced wi a long "a."

I would guess that a situation has arisen where someone has heard "arsed" assumed it was someone pronouncing "asked" as above and it's caught on in some areas as "I couldn't be asked.".

Then again, I could be wrong...