My cousin, an Australian, married a Canadian, and they live in North America. After they’d been married for over five years (a surprisingly long time before this confusion arose, in my opinion), she once asked him to fetch a couple of something from the shops. He dutifully returned with two, and she asked “since when does a couple mean <i>two</i>?” They consulted with her family, and sure enough, they largely thought of and expected “a couple” to mean more than two. Meanwhile, when in Australia, I would expect “a couple” to <i>absolutely always</i> mean exactly two.
Ugh. I really really want "couple" to always mean two, and "few" to always mean three or four. I've never had strong feelings about "several"; I've usually understood it to mean some fairly loose number, perhaps less than "many", but probably (but not exclusively) more than "a few".<p>But I admit that I sometimes use "couple" to mean a little bit more than two, and "few" to mean a bit more than even four.<p>I think it should just not matter all that much. I would loosely order them as: couple < few < several (but even then I'm sure there would be exceptions), but their exact numbers aren't all that important, as long as it's not important that the other person get exact numbers out of whatever I'm talking about.<p>But if I do want someone to do something specific, I should never tell someone to "buy a few tomatoes". I should tell them the exact number I want in order to avoid confusion or surprises later. Whenever someone asks me to buy a "couple" or a "few" of something, I always ask for clarification.
That's where I think the Korean numeric system really shines, for some weird reason.<p>gloss: han(a)=1 du(l)=2 se(t)=3 ne(t)=4 daseot=5 yeoseot=6 ilgop=7 yeodeol=8<p><pre><code> handu = one or two
duse = two or three
sene/seoneo = three or four
duseoneo = two or three or four
nedet = four or five
daeyeoseot = five or six
yeoseoilgop = six or seven
ilgoyeodeol = seven or eight
</code></pre>
Sadly I think that's about it, it doesn't extend much more. But it's quite useful where it's available!
I've always used the Heroes of Might and Magic army size as a reference: <a href="https://heroes.thelazy.net/index.php/Creature" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://heroes.thelazy.net/index.php/Creature</a>
>”Several is usually used for a number greater than a couple and a few. Occasionally it is used in the same way as couple and few.“<p>Like when the speaker/writer wants to emphasize that was more than two. “The suspect had several beers.” Vs “The suspect had a couple beers.”<p>The number of beers in this hypothetical example is the same. But the meaning of the sentence— perhaps the intention behind the sentence— is entirely different.
Another couple of common words that can cause confusion are “last” and “next” in reference to days of the week. If today is Monday, for example, when are “next Wednesday,” “next Thursday,” “next Friday,” and “next Saturday”? The same week? Or the following week? What about if today is Sunday or Tuesday?<p>Twenty years ago, when I was working as a dictionary editor, I wrote a note about the problem:<p><a href="https://www.gally.net/leavings/00/0014.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.gally.net/leavings/00/0014.html</a>
Expecting precise use of imprecise measurement words seems nuts. If people were of the mind to be precise, they wouldn't be using "couple" "few" and "several" in the first place.
What <i>really</i> grinds my gears is when people use the words "couple" and "few" in exactly the opposite way they are supposed to be used. How can a couple not be exactly two? Why would you then use few to mean exactly two?<p>These people are almost always American. At least, I've never encountered someone I know not to be American making this error.<p>It's part of a wider pattern I've noticed where Americans just say things backwards. Some examples include "let's see if I can't" (meaning let's see if I can), "could care less" (meaning couldn't care less), "me either" (meaning me neither), "irregardlees" (meaning regardless). It's an interesting phenomenon.
> Couple is used to refer to two things, but is also often used for a small number greater than two<p>Is this an American thing? It would be obviously wrong to refer to any number not two as a "couple" in AU/NZ English.
An interesting linguistic nuance in (at least British) English is that you can say "I went to get 2 or 3 things from the garage" and it would still be accepted as correct if you actually got 5 things.
It really bugs me when people say "one of the only" instead of "one of the few", I feel like there's a subtle semantic difference in there (everything is one of the only / it doesn't necessarily imply rarity, or anything really).
In the light of all these HN comments, it is obvious that "couple" is not a helpful word, sowing discord even among native speakers, so I'll just keep avoiding it and just use:<p>- "two" to mean "two" (duh!)<p>- "a few" for "a small number of but not one" / "two or more but not many"<p>- "few" or "not many" for "not many"<p>- "several" for the less specific "two or more, many or not". I'll probably avoid saying "several" for "two" if I can help it though, because I know it might confuse or even annoy some people.<p>It might help me avoid a couple of annoying issues.
I wonder if peoples underestimation of things contributed towards the inflation of couple. I only had a couple of beers/coffees/chocolates etc.<p>Also is many > several? and how does plethora and myriad fair?
Reading this, I realized that a similar thing developed in German, my native tongue, but from a different root. As a noun, capital Paar refers to a pair of exactly two, like “ein Paar Schuhe”, or a couple (n.), like “das Paar”. As a pronoun, lowercase paar refers to a few or a couple of.<p>This leads to this weird situation where “ein Paar Socken” is exactly two socks, but “ein paar Socken” can be a few socks, like 2-7. The pronunciation is exactly the same, and both versions are in common use.
<i>"We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;"</i><p><i>Henry V</i> (1599), W.Shakespeare<p><a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Crispin%27s_Day_Speech" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Crispin%27s_Day_Speech</a><p>'Few' here means 'several' thousand soldiers (~7,000) at the Battle of Agincourt (1415). In the speech, it is explained that <i>few</i> is in comparison to the whole (adult male) population of England (up to 1m).<p><i>"Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few."</i><p>House of Commons (1940), W.Churchill<p><a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Never_was_so_much_owed_by_so_many_to_so_few" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Never_was_so_much_owed_by_so...</a><p>In a deliberate echo of Shakespeare, Churchill also compares the relatively small number of RAF fighter pilots (~3,000) to the <i>many,</i> the population of Britain, it's Empire, the free world, and perhaps all free peoples into our uncertain future.
The one that gets me with "couple" is people who say " a couple beers" instead of "a couple of beers". It's like says "a pile coats" or "a queue customers" or "a herd cows".
Reading the comments, it appears that there are folks in the US, Canada, the UK, and Australia who understand the use of “couple” as fuzzy. “I’m going to grab a couple of things from the garage” means I’m going to grab a few, maybe 1-4 or so things. It also is understood as meaning 2 when talking about a specific request as in, “Give me a couple of beers.”<p>So, I’m surprised that so many commenters are surprised by the fuzzy usage. I wonder if it’s a regional thing in each country? But then, how does it transcend borders so thoroughly before spreading (mostly) to every region? Language evolution is such a strange thing.
Late middle-aged Pacific Northwesterner here. My wife (same situation as me) and I have argued over the meaning of "a couple" since about half-past forever. I was raised to understand that "a couple" means two, no more, no less. She was raised to believe "a couple" is more like "a few" -- two to, say four or five.<p>However, the argument no longer exists, as she has come to understand that if she asks me to bring her "a couple" of anything from the pantry, she will receive two. She has learned to speak precisely...or at least precisely enough for me.
One thing not mentioned is that US usage has 'couple' as an adjective whereas in British usage it is a noun - hence "a couple hours" is incorrect in Britain, we must say "a couple of hours".
Couple is two. Few is four. Several is at least five. There is nothing for three, except for very large values of two or very small values of four (these are so uncommon in practice that we just use three).<p>> Then shalt thou count to three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out.
I am not a native speaker, but my feeling is that several can also be used to insist on non-uniqueness. E.g. "Most rich families own <i>several</i> cars" or "Jupiter has <i>several</i> moons" (= not one). I'm surprised that it is not mentioned in the article.
American. I only use couple for 2. Few(er) is countable (v some, less or more). Several is an ambiguous countable small number greater than 2 but probably no more than 5 (v bunch, which is also ambiguous and countable but more than several).<p>I will continue to use them this way.
Another example of the imprecise nature of the English language: when does afternoon become evening and evening become night? Also how you can legitimately say both "I was up at two this morning" and "I was up until two last night" :-)
I find it more accurate to consider "few" and "several" to refer to the same small pluralities, but that "few" has a connotation of paucity that is not as present in "several"
The U.S. Constitution refers to "the several States" in various places (e.g., Article I, Section 2).<p>Under U.S. law, therefore, several can mean 13 (the original number of states) or possibly 50 (the current number).
Whoever specifies or asks implies that the exact amount is not important and defers it to the reader/interlocutor to decide. It can then be<p>a few = a couple > 1<p>several > a few
Something similar but I learnt only in my high school is this - "few" vs "a few"<p>few = not very many, with a focus on the fact that this number is (remarkably) small.<p>"a few" = not very many, but at least more than one.<p><a href="https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/1866/a-few-vs-few" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/1866/a-few-vs-fe...</a><p>My English teacher however taught us this way:<p>few = zero<p>a few = more than one
A "couple" to me is between 1.5 and 3 more or less for things that are continuous like time. "Took me a couple weeks/months", I'm expecting that range, not exactly two. Had a silly argument with a neighbour (Canada) when they asked how long I've been in my new house and I said "couple of months" and doing the math it turned out to be like 2.5 or 3.
When I was in graduate school, I was taught "few" means almost none, "couple" means 2, "several" usually avoided but means more than 2. And most of the papers also written that way. I guess things changed, or m-w not intended to cover academic use
I believe "couple" meaning two or more is a US usage. My (Texan) ex used it to mean roughly "more than two, less than seven". For me (Brit), it meant "two, give or take one", i.e. a sort of fuzzy two.
A bit off topic, but my pet peeve at the moment is the use of "slightly". I've always considered it to mean like less than 5%, maybe a lot less, but I've seen it used in newspapers to mean a 20% or even more. It seems to have lost its meaning somehow.