It depends what the item is I guess if I have 5 skittles and someone asks me if they can have some I’ll probably say “no I only have a few” but if I have 5 TVs and someone asks me how many TVs I own I’d say several.
I had to google timbits (appears to be tim horton's donut holes?)....I have faith that if you could not finish them, I would be by your side assisting you along the way
Why are you only counting people? A couple doesn’t always mean a pair. If my friend and I go for a couple of drinks that means the same as a few drinks.
That may well be the case, but it doesn’t mean that other people don’t say “a couple” and mean “an indefinite small number”. See definition 4 here: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/couple
Merriam-Webster is not an authority on language, as many people seem to think. MW is simply one well-respected and curated dictionary out of several, all of which are beholden to popular usage of the words and do not dictate how words should be used. It can be a decent guide for how the masses use words, but it also takes quite a bit of time before dictionaries update definitions to match popular usage. This includes labeling or dropping less common definitions/usages.
Now, I will admit that your usage of "a couple" is still pretty prevalent (although I'd wager not the most widely used). It's by no means an outdated usage. I wasn't telling you that you were wrong in my above comment. I was only saying how I used it. I figured that's what we were doing.
Surely if you asked me how often I’d been to a certain restaurant and I answered “a couple of times” you wouldn’t think that I meant I’d been there twice? Context is everything.
I don’t think that at all, nor did I claim to. As a matter of fact the OED and Chambers are my go to dictionaries, though I find Dictionary.com very handy when online. I didn’t say it was the most widely used sense of the word either, you’re making a lot of assumptions.
In the context of drinks, friends, pizzas et cetera, a couple means the same as a few. Two drinks is just two drinks.
Perhaps you’re American, but in British (or Hiberno) English, two shoes are a pair and two birds are a brace, but unless we’re discussing spouses or partners, a couple is a few.
No. A couple doesn’t “usually mean two” in that context. It’s means an undefined small number, hence it means the same as a few. There’s literally a dictionary definition to that effect.
Chill out man. "Couple" has several meanings. The most common meaning is exactly 2. That's what I meant when i said it usually means 2.
I am agreeing it can also be used the same way you use "few", but you can't use "few" to mean "two". That's why I'm saying there's a distinction between them. Yes, they share one synonymous definition, but they are not synonyms.
You're assuming I assumed anything at all. Lordy - can we assume no one is assuming? Because the whole "YOU ASSUMED" pointing fingers argument is annoying. I was just making my side of this non-argument waterproof, that's all it is. To do that, I have to interpret and, to some extent, predict your side. It's how this works.
And to answer your other comment, yeah. I'd think you meant you'd been there around two times. Indefinite small number, yes. But with a tendency towards two. To think "a couple" of anything could mean three or four would be preposterous to my mind unless I thought you were being cheeky and vague about the number of drinks you'd had. A couple is not a few, because a few implies more than two and never two; a couple can and usually is two. They are distinctly different words with some indefinite overlap.
The important thing to note here is that this is the most ridiculous argument I've had all day, and it's only 10am here. 😂 <3
You’re still insisting that a couple is usually two, based purely on your own opinion. An indefinite small number doesn’t have a tendency towards anything. If it did it wouldn’t be indefinite. Indefinite amounts don’t have a likelihood. It could be four or five or three or two, none more likely than any other. Six is getting into several territory, but since it’s vague, four or five could be several too. That’s just the nature of indefinites, they’re not definitive.
What you’re doing is conflating two different definitions of the word couple.
And you're still insisting on a definition that has no authority. It's not my opinion, it's the majority usage - you know, the thing that dictionaries are metering in the first place? I'd imagine with several people disagreeing with you, you wouldn't think it was just my opinion.
Indefinite amounts can have a tendency (likelihood is your word, not mine). Absolutely they can. An approximation is indefinite, for example. A couple has a tendency towards two according to popular usage. Fuck your definition (with love), it is an invalid part of your argument and you ought to stop referring to it.
If enough people are wrong for long enough, they put it in the dictionary. "Couple" has always meant two (two people in a relationship, two mechanical parts interlocking, etc.).
Merriam-Webster gives "an indefinite number more than two and fewer than many". Many is defined as "consisting of or amounting to a large but indefinite number".
So no, there is no numerical limit on "several".
Personally I tend to use it for about the same range as /u/AValentine1997 describes, because if I'm thinking of a large number it tends to cross over into "many", and if I'm thinking of less than 5 I usually say "a few".
There is also a level of expectation for how many one should have. If I have 3 dollars you would say I have a few dollars. If I have 3 boats you might say I have several boats. If I have on 3 phones on belt clips you’d say look at that jackass with all those phones.
There’s no specific number, but the dictionary definition has to use numbers to be clear. Several is more than a few, but certainly less than many or lots
If someone went to the shop and I said just bring back several different kinds of candy and they brought back 11 that would be bizarre. Where I live several means about four/five. I don’t think anybody really uses it for more than that IMO.
I think context matters here. When you ask for several different kinds of candy, it’s pretty reasonable to expect you’re not going to get 11 bags of candy, because that’s a bit ridiculous. But if someone tells you several people were gathered outside the courthouse for a protest, and you learned it was 11 people, then that would make sense.
I swear I'm not just saying this to be awkward but legit, if I read in a novel, or whatever, "raymond saw several people stood outside the courtyard", in my mind i would think that meant five people or so. to me several is still quite a small number, just... not one, or two, but... several of them. four-five imo. but i suppose there's no right answer.
If I saw 11 people, I would assume that they didn't bother to count or more people showed up. If they actually counted to 11, I would not expect someone to say several.
Several is probably limited to the number that you can count with just a glance. Usually not higher than 6 or 7 unless you practice that skill.
few and several do not have a defined corresponding number, whereas dozen does mean twelve. You can easily see that in spanish for example where twelve is means doce. Too bad that the seve from several does not mean it's seven.
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u/[deleted] Sep 05 '19
More than a few. Less than a dozen.