How many is a couple?

[Thomas Canfield]

"I'll have it done in a couple of days" means "up to two".

That is like saying "manama" means tomorrow, and I learned that in Italian it only means not today. A couple of minutes can take a while.

[mike holden]

I have often subscribed to the following form of counting: "One, Two, Some, Many....." - Baldrick on the Black Adder Series starring Rowan Atkinson.

Mike

[Mike Cruz]

"A" is one. A "couple" is two. A "few" is three. Anything over that is scads.

[Tom Vanzant]

64ths... how many shavings is that?

[Jim Underwood]

Depends on what you're talking about really..

If you're talking about a married pair, then it's exactly two. (Well, until the polyamourists start re-defining marriage.)

If you're asking someone to get a few screws, then a couple is probably two..

If someone asks you how many of those tools you have, and you just don't remember, then you say, "I think I have a couple of those."

1/64 is approximately .015 inches- or just a little thicker than a matchbook cover. What? You didn't know that?

[Jeff Bratt]

Depends on the context - a couple is two people, but a couple of minutes is much less specific.

I always thought there are overlapping ranges to non-specific quantity designations:
couple: 1 - 3
few: 2 - 7
several: 5 - 12
dozen: could mean exactly 12 (or 13), or 10 - 20
lots: more than the others
many: I don't want to know...
hundreds
thousands
millions
billions
now which is bigger - jillions or gazillions???

...my couple of cents worth.

[john brenton]

A couple pairs of socks is 4 individual socks...that's the only thing I can think of. Other than that, if you say a couple for anything other then two, then you aren't giving that much importance to the quantity. couple is two, three is a few, and anything more needs a definitive quality or a "several"

LOML and I have had a debate going for a while now on how many "a couple" represents. She says 2. I say 2 or more and say a couple and a few can be used interchangeably to represent a small but unknown quantity. I mean, if I knew it was 2 I would just say 2.

What do you think?

1. Exactly 2
2. 2 or more
3. Both

[Kevin L Little]

A couple is two, hence a husband and wife are a couple.
A few can mean many, typically more than two.

[Larry Klaaren]

I once worked with someone who insisted a couple was "two" and could not be more. So I cut him off on his "couple of thoughts" after the second.

[Belinda Barfield]

I once worked with someone who insisted a couple was "two" and could not be more. So I cut him off on his "couple of thoughts" after the second.

Sort of like when someone says "I just have a couple more questions." and you know that means another 30 minutes.