Thursday, July 29, 2010

If two's a couple.....

Do you ever say things like......here's a couple of these for ya.  
Or over there, there are a few things laying on the floor....  
Or why is there so many of that thing?   

But how many of those items are you really referring to?


Well, TJ is very specific on his couple, few, many/several word choices.  If you say you have a 'couple' things for him and give him more than two.....he will correct you.  And likewise if you say you have a few things for him to do, but list more than three....watch out! :) 

2 is a couple
3 is a few
4 or more is many, or several

Today he was telling me a story about someone using the term couple, but he looked over and there was 9 of that particular item.

Oh Boy!!!

He was confused because he thought he was going to see only two of this item, but found nine there instead.

I think this is hilarious.  I don't use them right.  I will say a couple even if there are 3 or 4.  I will say a few if there are more than 4....to me they just mean smaller increments....and several to me means a much larger amount.

The funnier part is he is passing this on to Monkey.  I think I used one of these terms the other day and Monkey said, "Mom, there is only a couple because there is  2.  That's what Dad says....2 is a couple, 3 is a few."


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is a very imporant issue that I wish more people would take seriously. A couple is ALWAYS two. I am not sure about the few meaning always 3 but certainly is 3-4. That is unless it is a comparison and only then can it vary by context. Several is specifically 5-7 while many is another word that depends wholly on context. Again, you can see this is something we need to teach our kids right from the beginning and I applaud TJ on his attention to this serious issue.

Gampa and Gamma said...

I suppose TJ got that from us. I always think of couple as 2. If I'm typing something and I am referring to more then 2 of something I will use the word few. If you look up the word couple I bet it would say two of something.

Stephanie Wright said...

I'm not objecting to a couple being 2....obviously a married couple is only two...and in other instances a couple should always be 2... I just think it's funny how argumentatively adamant he is even on the few being 3 and many/several being 4 or more. :)
This just happened to be the most recent story that reminded me of his OCD about this topic.
-Stephanie

Gampa and Gamma said...

I"m reading FB and someone was asking "what's everyone's take on the timing behind "several" as in being told "you are several months from a referral"....2, 3, 4, an eternity??" Here is what someone responded, "I've always counted it as a couple = 2; a few = 3-4; some or several = 5+." I read this and had to smile.

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