Niniel wrote:
Quote:
My literal interpretations seem to be tied to my OCD tendencies. For instance, if someone asks for a couple, I give them TWO of whatever they asked for. However, people rarely say 'couple' when they mean 'two'...they usually mean several or a handful or something like that. Now I make sure to ask...do you want just two? I don't like when people say things that don't make sense, so sometimes my 'literal interpretation' might be stubborn refusal to acknowledge an alternate meaning...like when people say "I'm sweating like a pig", when pigs don't have sweat glands.
My husband only recently told me that a couple dosen't usually mean two, and I've always given people two of whatever they've asked for when they say a couple. Woops.
I'm pretty sure that it does mean 2. A couple is a pair, in just about any sense of the word. Even couplings on trains are for joining 2 carriages.
Several, however, is something that I always assumed meant 7 of something.
Turns out that it doesn't, it only means the same as a few, or more than 3.