single, a couple, few, or many?

Question

a friend and i are having a disagreement about what "a few" is.... i say a few is 3... she says 3 or more... please mr(s) complete stranger,,, help

Answer 1

A few is an indeterminate number and is really very much up to the speaker. It is used when the number is not significant or is not known. The problem is that a few can mean different amounts to different people. Your case in point.

If you tell a child he or she can have a few cookies, he might think he can take 5 or 6 when you mean more like 3. However, if you told a child he or she could have a few M&Ms, you would probably mean a small handful, while the child might think a couple of handfuls.

A few is more than 2, but the maximum is really in the mind of the speaker. Ultimately, your friend is correct. A few is not a specific number. It can mean 3 or it can mean more than 3.

Answer 2

There is no particular number that is 'a few'. It's all relevant to the whole number. If there was a room full of people (say 140 or so) and eight of them had red hair, you could say that there were a few people with red hair. If 40 of them had red hair, you could say many of them had red hair, if 112 of them had red hair, you could say that most of them had red hair.

Answer 3

Single turns into back.

Answer 4

More than One

few (fyū)
adj., few·er, few·est.
Amounting to or consisting of a small number: one of my few bad habits.
Being more than one but indefinitely small in number: bowled a few strings.

Answer 5

single = 1
a couple = 2
few = 3 or 4
many is more than a few.

Answer 6

single is one, couple is two, few is more than two; its anything above 2.