"It has happened a couple of times."
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I'm a devout "couple = 2, few = 3, several = 4 - 7, and if ya got more than that it's a buncha" adherent.
@GGMcBG @futurebird i'm a couple = 2, few = 3, bunch = 4, handful = 5, several = >5
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"It has happened a couple of times."
@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
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@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?"
Try "a couplet of avocados" that MUST be two of them and it's fancy.
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@fedward @futurebird A “handful” has to be more than “a few” because a handful is also too much.
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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.
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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?
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@fedward depends: peanuts or watermelons? @futurebird @catsalad
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@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.)
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"It has happened a couple of times."
@futurebird I also picked up the phrase "a couple few", which I think means more than a few, but less than... 10ish?
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@fedward @futurebird are we talking cats, children, or salt?
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@futurebird I remember as a kid some adult in my life trying to insist that a couple means exactly two and a few is three or more, and I was like "why would I ever say 'a couple' if it means two and has more syllables"
@funkula @futurebird I noticed something interesting about this, which is when I was studying German I was taught that "a pair" (in German "ein paar") means "a few", and growing up as a native English speaker this is what I learned in early childhood, that "a couple" means "a few". I think the push to make the phrase mean only exactly two was a cultural trend that happened at some point stemming from pedantry.
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@fedward @futurebird
once < couple/few < handful < bunch < many < lots < most -
"It has happened a couple of times."
@futurebird I think more than once but I can't be bothered to document or enumerate the occurrences.
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Couple : Two
Few : Three
Some : Five
Several : Seven
Handful : Ten
Dozen : Twelve -
@fedward
@futurebird a handful is 3 ≤ n ≤ 5, a few is heavily contextual. I'm missing a "they are not comparable" option here! -
"It has happened a couple of times."
@futurebird I've always seen "a couple" as "two, with nonchalance". The answer is two, but I am far too cool, relaxed and/or mysterious to be specific.
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@fedward @futurebird this hurts my brain. one is a numeric measurement and one is volumetric. so it depends on the size of your granules.
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@fedward @futurebird I think it depends on the total available. If it’s a small amount, a handful is more; if there’s a lot of it, a handful is less. So "a few" feels more stretchy to me.
Not a native speaker.
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@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.)
@varx @fedward @futurebird in west Asian markets, a handful could mean the absolute most you can fit in your hands.
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