"It has happened a couple of times."

[ggmcbg@mstdn.plus]

@futurebird

I'm a devout "couple = 2, few = 3, several = 4 - 7, and if ya got more than that it's a buncha" adherent.

[trashguts@goblin.camp]

@futurebird when i hear 'a couple' i assume 2 by default, but am more open to being wrong on that assumption than if they said 'two'

[jrdepriest@infosec.exchange]

@futurebird as an autistic person,I have had to learn to pay attention to tone of voice, body language, and other context clues to decipher that one. I'm still very likely to ask, "do you mean exactly two?"

[aplundell@timeloop.cafe]

@futurebird

"It's happened a couple times." = It has happened two times that I'm telling you about, and perhaps more.

"It's only happened a couple times" = It has happened exactly two times.

[ehashman@cloudisland.nz]

@futurebird I had an argument with an ex about this because I am apparently in the rare camp of "exactly two"—if you mean more than that, why would you not say "a few?" If you say people are a couple, do you assume there are more than 2 people in that relationship???

[ericlawton@kolektiva.social]

@futurebird

For "It has happened a number of times.", I'm never sure if it's π or the current largest known prime number.

[stevenaleach@universeodon.com]

@futurebird I noticed at some point that the kid who occasionally works at the corner grocery heard "a couple of" as a nonspecific quantity.

He would always ask "so how many?".

I found this fascinated and have tended to buy stuff in pairs ever since. He now assumes I mean two, but always double checks.

"And a couple avocados please."
"So is two okay?" ....

I've bit my tongue so many times to stop from asking: "If the next customers through that door happen to be a couple who walk in together holding hands, how many people would they be?"

[bitprophet@social.coop]

@ehashman @futurebird thissssss

[piebob@metasocial.com]

@ehashman @futurebird i recently had an argument about this as well; i also think "a couple" means exactly two.

[setcab@rollenspiel.social]

@futurebird Honestly, I would expect around 3-5 times (so more than 2)

[stellafoxxie@oldbytes.space]

@GGMcBG @futurebird i'm a couple = 2, few = 3, bunch = 4, handful = 5, several = >5

[catmisgivings@stranger.social]

@futurebird a pair is precisely two things and they are in some way of like kind or matched

A couple is an indefinite number of things but small and the category of stuff that can be in the couple is broader ("I picked up a couple of things from the store")

Except when people are a couple. Then the definition for "pair" applies, for some reason

[futurebird@sauropods.win]

@stevenaleach

Try "a couplet of avocados" that MUST be two of them and it's fancy.

[colorblindcowboy@mastodon.art]

@fedward @futurebird A “handful” has to be more than “a few” because a handful is also too much.

[michael_w_busch@mastodon.online]

@fedward @futurebird

I thought "a handful" was based on the number of a small object one can hold in a hand.

As opposed to the number of fingers.

[futurebird@sauropods.win]

@fedward

This is hard. #picaTheCat is but one cat (i think... um... oh no) but she is also "more than a handful"

How does that work?

[renedamkot@mastodon.social]

@fedward depends: peanuts or watermelons? @futurebird @catsalad

[varx@cybersecurity.theater]

@fedward @futurebird Someone once told me that a handful meant five. Because that's a handful of fingers.

(I maintain that it depends on the size and abstractness of the noun. A handful of jellybeans is a different number than a handful of wars.)

[roger@mastodon.seattlematrix.org]

@futurebird I also picked up the phrase "a couple few", which I think means more than a few, but less than... 10ish?

[futurebird@sauropods.win]

@fedward

Or measured at all.

The vet gave up on weighing her.