“The Few” became a name for this group of fliers: 2,353 British subjects and 574 volunteers from overseas. Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Several comes from a word meaning “existing apart.” Before it came to mean “more than one” (about 1530), it was used with the meanings “separate, various, diverse, different.”, In legal use several preserves the meaning of “separate.” In the following example it is used to show that liability is enforceable separately against each party, the contractual liability of each company to insured is several and not joint —. I know these posts are rather old, but they are fascinating nonetheless. It would seem that few and several can imply any number you want them to. So we cant really tag these two words with any numbers. People don’t use it within the context of its definition, but regardless, the use of the word still works.

A handful is more than a mouthful, or less, depending on the person. Hope this answers your question.

A couple 2 That is, I would mean a small number of 2-3 is a couple, rather than a small fraction that would mean a few. Several were women. many 25 – 50% All Right Reserved. It’s worth the time of any writer who is looking for models of beautifully-written English prose. to me few is most likely to be 3 or 4, though could also be 2-5 or even 6 depending on the situation. I agree with Ali that a couple should be two. what came to my mind while deliberating the post was the distinction between: In my mind, the relevance of the whole has no bearing here…. Whereas several refers to more than one might expect, such as, “he made several mistakes”. A few to me would mean more than a couple but less than a handful – oh no, what’s a handful…??

nearly all 90-99% Couple is the word I would use to mean 2-3, usually.

The Few that Winston Churchill referred to was a small portion of the ‘many’, the population of England, and possibly the world. Most 75 – 90% In the first case it tells me that the person did good and didn’t make as many mistakes as I might expect. Few is always plural, for me, that is more than one. Good Luck! from 0% to 100% what percentages do most, many, several, some, not many and a number of correlate with? Several definition is - separate or distinct from one another. 1. This word is connected with numbers too, because you can say: "The number 18,980 is the least common multiple of 260 and 365" and now it is a noun. :-) Source(s): Discussion with my friends. Being of a number more than two or three but not many: several miles away. All 100%. So this proves that few divides into several making it smaller. I would say that a couple HAS to be two exactly… three’s a crowd. … She thinks “a few” refers to “maybe 2-3 items” while “several” refers to “maybe 3-6.” Her husband says “a few” is 4-7 items. . Good insight into the origins of these words. a couple set # 2-4 Découvrez comment nous utilisons vos informations dans notre Politique relative à la vie privée et notre Politique relative aux cookies. 1. And a few stars can be over a hundred. 13 Responses to “Few vs. Several” Brad K. on May 10, 2008 1:26 pm Few usually seems to mean a ration, a small portion, rather than a distinct number. You'll also get three bonus ebooks completely free. The word several, usually an adjective or pronoun, has also been used as a verb. Then with the same argument I use SEVen to refer to the target area for SEVeral. Several is definitely more than few. Maybe not officially, but at least in how people use it. 2. Few usually seems to mean a ration, a small portion, rather than a distinct number. But all the figures given are not hard and fast. So, to summarize, 'how many' is few and several, depends on two things, namely, 1.

several 7-10, a hundred or so 100-150 More than two results in polycoupling. Subscribers get access to our archives with 800+ interactive exercises! To me a few refers to less than one might expect, such as, ” he made a few mistakes”. Few seems to be relative to the size of the whole. "Many of these women have multiple children with various men."

They depend on the context.

Copyright © 2020 Daily Writing Tips . From there I tackled few, several and many. You can also find many other uses of these three words and find several examples. a few 3 several 4 many/lots 5 as a person who likes lots of catsup, this type of interpretation has proved very frustrating to me (i think it errs on the low side, except for couple). 2 0. urbaniak. _____ people showed up for the swap meet. The number implied in the word few is “more than two,” Beyond that, trying to specify how many more is fruitless. 2. Just my two cents, nothing to really to back it up by my own opinion. Old English feawe/fea derives from a Germanic root meaning “little.”. A farmer or community would “several” a large expanse of land into smaller parcels. a handful 5-7 The Object which the number counts, and . All my life (I am 80 years old) I have believed that couple meant 2, several things meant “2 or 3” of them, and in that context “a few” meant the same as several.

Para permitir a Verizon Media y a nuestros socios procesar tus datos personales, selecciona 'Acepto' o selecciona 'Gestionar ajustes' para obtener más información y para gestionar tus opciones, entre ellas, oponerte a que los socios procesen tus datos personales para sus propios intereses legítimos. Brilliant! I use ‘a couple’ in speech but rarely in writing. In counting:

Several countries can be 40 or 50. But if you look at its use, coupling things together can imply more than two. A couple hundred 151-250 Para obtener más información sobre cómo utilizamos tu información, consulta nuestra Política de privacidad y la Política de cookies. Yahoo forma parte de Verizon Media. A few countries in the world can be 10 or 20. I always think that few and several are not interchangeable, but it is only now that I learned about their proper use. Información sobre tu dispositivo y conexión a Internet, incluida tu dirección IP, Actividad de navegación y búsqueda al utilizar sitios web y aplicaciones de Verizon Media. Hi:

As a proportion to a whole. several: quote:adj.

Few is the opposite of many. The Few that Winston Churchill referred to was a small portion of the ‘many’, the population of England, and possibly the world. a few 2 – 5% But usually coupling involves two at the actual time of coupling. the majority 50-75% In keeping with its original meaning, several may be used to separate one group from another: A large crowd of soldiers gathered to protest the law. How to use several in a sentence. several hundred 450-999. In the future I will endeavor to stop using several and few, and be more patently specific. Another quality lesson from you that I should be thankful. The Context of use. In my experience there is a difference between “few”, “a few”, “few [of]”. I expect the New Testament writer was anticipating more than 2-7 converts when writing: In 1940 Winston Churchill was referring to the pilots of the Royal Air Force when he wrote: Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few. 2. few 0 – 2% Since few is more than 2 and less than several I decided I would use Four to denote a target area for Few. I like the ‘sever’ implication of several. An exclusive or limited number: the discerning few; the fortunate few. Guess I have been wrong for many years. You will improve your English in only 5 minutes per day, guaranteed! But a few of the dozen chickens in my Bantam flock would be a smaller number than a few of the calves in my neighbor’s pasture. What Brad states reflects what I was thinking as well. Few is not the same as a few. If, however, i had several opportunities it would surely mean that I had quite a few. By the way, in checking the Churchill quotation, I re-read the speech in which it appears. Thanks! Roy 16 August 2007 at 12:47 As for several meaning existing apart makes sense as well.



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