My husband said the same when I told him about this thread. "Couple" means two. I said yes, but
colloquially it can mean "two or three or somewhere in that range." We almost started a longer
discussion about it, but I reminded him of our 30+ years of ongoing talk about a "fact" so we
both stopped.
Addendum: he claims there are "true facts." I say that is redundant, that a fact is by
definition true, and he's implying there are false facts (or as we say in the US, "alternative
facts.") This has been going on for years. It's a friendly, amusing, kind of false
disagreement. Then one day we just looked it up in the dictionary and...a fact can either be a
true bit of information, or a generic datum.
And that spoiled all the fun.
On 9/8/21 6:14 AM, Keith Martin via use-livecode wrote:
On Sep 7, 2021, at 11:04 PM, Martin Koob via use-livecode
<use-livecode@lists.runrev.com> wrote:
My wife and I have an ongoing disagreement about the term 'couple of’ in terms
of counting. I say it means around 2 or 3ish. She says it means 2. Further
she says if you wanted to say 3 or 4 you would say ‘a few’.
I'm the kind of person that distinguishes between 'like' (exclusive: similar to
but not) and 'such as' (inclusive: similar to and part of the comparison set),
so this is coming from a position of pedantry, but that's because I am a
writer...
Strictly speaking, 'a couple' means two, no more and no less. In casual use
(when counting, not when referring to relationship partnerships) it isn't
unusual for it to be used in place of 'a few' and possibly mean three or even
four, but it's not technically *correct.*
I too hope your wife's logic is what holds true!
:)
k
--
Jacqueline Landman Gay | jac...@hyperactivesw.com
HyperActive Software | http://www.hyperactivesw.com
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