who's counting
- idiom
- Informal
:
¿quién cuenta?
- I've eaten three slices of cake, but who's counting?
Examples
-
I've been late three times this week, but who's counting?
-
We’ve ordered takeout maybe ten times this month—who's counting?
-
He’s made the same joke at least six times, but who's counting?
-
He missed the meeting twice this month, but who's counting?
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He’s made the same joke at least six times, but who's counting?
-
I've been late three times this week, but who's counting?
-
We’ve ordered takeout maybe ten times this month—who's counting?
Surface Forms
Morphology
The literal composition 'who is' + 'counting' directly yields the interrogative 'who is counting?', so a learner who knows the words will understand the surface meaning. However, the frequent pragmatic use as a dismissive rhetorical minimizer (meaning the exact number doesn’t matter) is a conversational inference rather than a straightforward compositional meaning, so full interpretation requires pragmatic exposure rather than just word knowledge.
Etymology
Who's counting comes from the simple picture of someone asking 'who is doing the counting?' as if no one is keeping score. So people say it when the exact number is 'unimportant' or to make something seem less of a problem.
