Two of the same kind connected or considered together. According to OED : two people or things of the same sort considered together: 'a couple of girls were playing marbles' [treated as singular or plural] two people who are married or otherwise closely associated romantically or sexually: 'in three weeks the couple fell in love and became engaged' 'a honeymoon couple' [informal] An indefinite small number Yet my colleague — a native speaker — insists that a couple never means three, although there can be a small error bar on the two.
Improve this question. Nathan Tuggy 9, 20 20 gold badges 38 38 silver badges 56 56 bronze badges. I've seen this question a couple of times. Those four links should be enough information to reveal which side of the fence I sit on for this debate. I am German and had the same confusion about what a couple means. I was actually surprised that it means two in a context different from the romantic couple or similar.
Because at least in German we use the equivalent to "a couple" almost always as: "some". Only in some very defined cases it means "two" like in the romantic couple or the "couple" of trousers or shoes we do not distinguish pair and couple in German as far as I can tell. So it might be one of these false friends there for German speakers and it would make sense if the original meaning was "2".
But nice to see that there seems — user Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. Bob and Marie make a good couple. I'll see you in a couple of weeks. These pretzels are delicious! Can I have a couple more? If that's not enough, consider the following xkcd comic , where the author makes fun of the ambiguity of "a couple" and such words: The author also adds mouseover text to his comic, which reads: "If things are too quiet, try asking a couple of friends whether "a couple" should always mean "two".
Improve this answer. Gilles 'SO- stop being evil' 5, 23 23 silver badges 44 44 bronze badges. WendiKidd WendiKidd And then there was my old Scout leader, a Tennessee native, who'd ask for "a coupla three minutes" while he finished his coffee.
WendiKidd: I'd say that's a five-minute minimum: i. It all depends whether that a in "coupla" is short for "and" or "of". In my world it's "couple or". If the intention is to exclude 2 as a possibility, a different word should be selected. Show 2 more comments. But he might expand on that answer by saying FumbleFingers FumbleFingers Just a couple exceptions to keep in mind, then? WendiKidd: Couple or three, as choster's Scout leader and I would have it.
Mebbe four or more. It's the exception that proves the rule, so the more the merrier! If your wife says, "I'll be ready in a couple of minutes", that almost certainly is not an assurance that she will be ready within seconds. Jay: YMMV, but if my daughter texts that she'll call me for a chat "in a couple of minutes" she's very dexterous, and really does spell out whole expressions like that!
For example, maybe you have few options. You might many choices, and that suggests far more than choosing between solely A , B, and C. For example, there are five reasons why the trial court decision must be overturned. For more on this topic, see here. The father of friends of mine arrived home after a long day at work just in time to settle an argument we were having: How many is a few?
A few means a small amount out of the whole amount. If I have 30 balls and 26 are white then many or most are white. If Have balls and 26 are white while the remaining are black then 26 is only a few. I grew up in the Boston, MA area and in that area a few was perhaps seven.
Of course in that area a cup of regular coffee came with sugar and cream already in it. You also worshed your cahh and paahked in Haaarvud Yahd, and rooted for the Redsawks.
I know this is an older comment, but what else is regular coffee if not with cream and sugar? Me , I drink my coffee black. Unless you are at a Starbucks and you order some concoction.
Black is regular. I always considered black coffee to mean no sugar or cream until I had a customer order a black coffee and assume I knew that it would have sugar in it.
While that was not how I interpreted it I understood it if we are only talking about color. I love language variation. Fascinating although sometimes frustrating. There was no easy way to say that in the midwest. A couple means two. A few means a small number. Leave it to the English to have several words all mean the same as a few but not less than a couple.
I pulled out my trusty smart phone and we began to whittle down our disagreement. Then, by a stroke of good fortune we came across your story. We want you to know that we have decided to accept your definitions due to the fell circumstances in which they were decided. To make this sentence more effective, it would read as thus: I saw a group of cats in an alley on the hunt for food.
The distinction in definitions appear to be related to the specific, region or locality you attended elementary school in. The words were taught this way. A couple was 2. Several was considered a vague term with 4 to 8 being the accepted meaning. A dozen was It could be combined with couple, few, and several dozen to give a general estimate.
Some and a group as well as a bunch or many could only be defined in the contest used with a bunch and many considered more. We all know a bubbler and not a fountain is the proper term for the fixture or unit, usually in a public area, you get a drink of water from. A fountain is a place you throw coins in….
Yes, I live in Wisconsin. In my studies to teach English as a Second Language, we were instructed to explain those terms as: a couple is 2, a few is 3 or 4, several is 5 or 6 and many is more than that. The word is from the Latin copula , which means "bond. The word was quickly applied to pairs, but by the s, it was also being used in the phrase a couple of to refer to an indefinite but still small number of people or things:.
Point you out a Scholemaster, who by your order, shall teache my sonne and yours, and for all the rest, I will provide, yea though they three do cost me a couple of hundred poundes by yeare I shall here communicate to the World a couple of letters. Once this broadening of couple began, there was no holding it back. Couple is now understood primarily to refer to two when used as a bare noun "they make a nice couple" , but is often used to refer to a small indeterminate of two or more when used in the phrase a couple of "I had a couple of cups of coffee and now I can't sleep.
Its smallness seems to be relative: a quick check of our citation files reveals that the phrase a couple of years ago has been used to refer to everything from one year and change to eight years, though most of the time the phrase seems to be used of three or four years when we can verify dates. Verdict: couple is used of small numbers most of the time, but usually at least two or more.
Few is an old word, dating back to the 9th century. It has never been used of a definite number, unlike couple : from the very beginning, few was used of a comparatively small number. The key word here is comparatively. Few is contrasted with many , but both are scalable quantities.
For instance:. Man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble. He arrived at the grotto a few days ago and asked his question, and since then he has been fasting in a holy cell while he waits for the answer.
The "few days" here are describing two completely different numerical quantities. The King James Bible uses "few days" to mark out the span of a person's life compared to eternity; the excerpt from The Egypt Game seems to be referring to the small number of days that have passed since the visitor arrived and the narrative present.
In neither case can you definitely say that few refers to a number between, say, 3 and To make matters more confusing, few also appears in the idioms not a few and quite a few , both of which refer to many:. Maria then said some really ugly things about Baltasar and not a few about Tony, and when she finally resumed speaking in a normal tone of voice, she used some very crisp language
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