A few to Several to a Pair

[C is for]

link

Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa. Since when is several synonymous with a few?? I always thought of several as being 5-7 (if someone told me someone had been stabbed several times, I would immediately think he'd been stabbed at least 5).

So, I guess my personal spectrum looks like this:
a pair - 2
a couple - 2 or 3
a few - 3-5
several - 5-7...or 8
many - depending on context, anywhere from 5 to a third of the population
a lot - 10-10 billion

And "a number" can fit in a number of contexts within my personal spectrum.

[Dragon Lady]

I'm gonna go with you C4. In fact, exactly. That is exactly how I see them in my head.

And the weirdest part of this is that I had this debate recently with Yellow's family, brought up by his sister (and she agrees with us, too, I think) who happens to work at the library. But she claims she never had this debate with her coworkers. And she can't be the "other writer" that Eirene discussed it with, since she's not a writer. So apparently the debate of number qualifiers is catchy.

[DavidP]

I highly disagree with the definition of "a couple".

A "couple" is always 2.
A "few" is 3-4
Several should be 5-7...maybe as high up as 9.
And then it goes up from there.

[Dragon Lady]

Ok, yeah. A couple is always two. I somehow missed that.

[Dead Cat]

My grandpa is fond of saying that a few is eight.

[Dragon Lady]

My grandpa is fond of saying that a few is eight.

hahaha

[Indefinite Integral]

Just adding my agreement - I came over here after I read that - a couple is nearly always two (though I could see minor exceptions here) and several is definitely more than a few.

[Katya]

If "a couple" is always exactly two, why bother to say "a couple"?

[Tao]

Eh, I think we're passing up a lot of context clues here.

"I'll be there in a couple of minutes" doesn't demand being limited to two. In many cases showing up two minutes after making such a statement would seem quick.

While few often seems more than couple, I don't think that it definitively must, though both are diminutive in my eyes. I would say "We kissed a couple of times" can get away with a lot more than "S/he stole a few kisses after the play".

Several, while potentially quantitatively similar, seems to carries the opposite connotation. Protip - see if you can spot the difference: "It was several hours before we were able to be picked up after his car broke down" vs. "A couple of hours after I threw a rod, AAA came and gave us a lift" vs. "Just a few hours after being stranded by a sudden emergency, we were able to safely bring the couple to a nearby town"

[Marduk]

Tao, to be fair, "I'll be there in two minutes" doesn't demand being limited to two, either.

[Katya]

Tao, to be fair, "I'll be there in two minutes" doesn't demand being limited to two, either.

Mmm, but that might be because it's such a short period of time that doing anything in two minutes is probably interpreted as hyperbole. Compare "I'll be there in two hours" vs. "I'll be there in a couple of hours." I'd say the latter is more vague.

[Yarjka]

I get very upset when my wife says "could I have a couple of your fries?" and then proceeds to take a whole handful. Those aren't the terms I agreed to!

I'm usually delighted, though, when I ask my wife for a couple of m&ms and she proceeds to give me half the bag.

[SMP]

For me, couple means two, but with a higher level of uncertainty than saying two. If I say I'll be there in 2 hours, then, barring unforeseen circumstances, I will be there in, say, 2 hours +/- 15 minutes. If I say a couple of hours, it means I think it could be two, but don't hold it against me if it ends up being 3.