A couple, few, some, several, and many walk into a bar…Oh, wait, that isn’t right. Let’s restart.
I confess I thought actual rules existed in regard to “couple,” “few,” “some,” “several,” and “many.” I was mistaken. There are no firm rules, only guidelines, and those are based on what sound and feel right.
For instance, it’s generally accepted that “couple” refers to two things. It makes sense; people use the word “couple” to refer to two people who are in a relationship. Thus, a “couple” of socks refers to two socks that may or may not be mismatched after a brawl in the dryer.
“Few” is trickier. It refers to more than two things but doesn’t refer to as many things as “some” or “several.” To make the word even more problematic, it can be modified by “a,” which changes the meaning entirely. “I have a few socks” means something different from “I have few socks.” The second case might cause one to wonder why a person has few socks. Were they lost in that infamous dryer? Eaten by the dog? No one knows. The first case tends to signify that the person does, indeed, have enough socks to at least last until the next wash day. He or she has a sufficient number of socks unlike the person who has few of them.
“Some” is understood as meaning more than “few” but less than “several.” What does that mean exactly? No one’s sure; thus, people use the word as it feels right to them. Thus, one might say “I have some socks you can borrow,” or “I will have to do some shopping to replace some socks.”
“Several” is used to mean more than “some” but less than “many.” Again, there is no exact number. The dictionary says it means more than a few but not a great number. In a sentence? “Alicia’s grandmother knitted several pairs of socks for her for Christmas.” It might not be the greatest Christmas gift, but at least Alicia has socks again.
As for “many,” it means a multitude. “She has many toe socks” means that she has a number of toe socks, perhaps more than the number of regular socks. “Many,” like the other words, has no exact number associated with it. It’s safe to say, though, that the girl who has many toe socks probably has a drawer overflowing with them.
Any questions about “couple,” “few,” “some,” “several,” or “many”? Any other questions you’d like to ask Write Right? Feel free to leave a comment here or on the Facebook page. Your question and the answer could be featured in a future post.
What about the numerically rounding-up terms “almost,” “close to,” “nearly”? If a company sells 904 flavors of widgets, is it deceptive to claim it has “nearly a thousand”?
And what about “about”? If I budgeted $450 but spent $550, is it wrong to say my accounts are “almost reconciled at about $500”?
Fun topic to debate. It is a problem that the logical part of my brain cannot accept. So I came up with a standard method of applying these terms many years ago. You are spot on with a couple since it commonly is used to refer to 2. From there I tackled few, several and many. Since few is more than 2 and less than several I decided I would use Four to denote a target area for Few. Then with the same argument I use SEVen to refer to the target area for SEVeral.
Couple = 2
Few = 3-5
Several 6-9
Many = 10 or more
1 = Single
2 = Couple
3 (Single plus a Couple) = a Few
5 (Couple plus Few) = Several
8 (a Few plus Several) = Many
13 (Several plus Many) = a Heap
21 (Many plus a Heap) = a Stack
34 (a Heap plus a Stack) = ???
It is the way that our mind records quantities, and why we are not good at appreciating large quantities.
What about “multiple”? How’s that fit in?
chuck3b I would treat the word similar to “several.” Countable, but too many to actually bother with.
@Quantizer Right? Hence why stories tend to have more impact than straight-up data.
@Swizzie I’d say that is deceptive. If you’re going to round numbers, you round up for ones over 50 and down for the others. So, you could “a little over 900 widgets” but not “nearly a 1,000.”
I probably wouldn’t share budget information like that. Not that you can’t, and, if you do, you could say “almost reconciled at $500.” You wouldn’t use at and about at the same time.
@Clay Smart!
I just did a Google search for the answer to this very question–well, at least the question, “‘Exactly’ how many is a few and how many is several?” (and, yes, I will admit that’s a couple of questions…right)?
Almost all the hits I got for the quantity of the word “several” looked like they all copied exactly the same phrasing from some mysterious authority somewhere: “Several is three or more (but often less than many, which we will cover next).” When I looked up a quantity for the word “few” the first hit I encountered stated this: “While many people would agree that ‘few’ means three or more, the actual dictionary definition of ‘few’ is, ‘not many but more than one.’ So a ‘few’ cannot be one, but it can be as low as two.” All to which I want to respond, WHA-? Are you all out of your minds?!? How can a few be two when that is what is meant by a couple, and how can several be three and yet still be more than a few, which–I think most people with two eyes and a brain can see–is more than a couple, or two? Erin, you stated it yourself above, two is a COUPLE, not a FEW. Google has just lost several–no, HEAPS–of points with me after this exasperating experience. And despite what the bloody information agents of the Internet Illuminati say, I’m staying with my long-held understanding of the numbers for few and several, which are much like those of the other sane individuals who’ve posted here:
a few = 3 or 4;
several = 5 to 7.
I don’t think we need to be all that strict about it, but if Mr. Spock were still alive today, I think he would agree that “a few” cannot equal two, since that number is already reserved for “a couple” (be it two lovers buying tickets to a movie or two pointy ears).
Thank you for indulging my little rant;-)
CarlosJonPaulNavia Ha! You’re welcome. I rely on the Little, Brown Handbook about questions like these. Grammar Girl also is helpful.
Sam kinstlinger
Thank you for the info I never would have known that! I proved my families wrong!
single only one; not one of several.
couple two individuals of the same sort considered together.
few a small number of.
several more than two but not many.
many a large number of. Definitions are weird you are right!