窶堋?窶堋｢窶堙懌?堋｢窶堙按絶?昶?堙俄?堙や?堋｢窶堙

This has always been one of my questions.
What numbers exactly would you think of when someone says...

1) a few ?
2) not a few?
3) a couple of ?
4) several?
5) many?
6) a lot?

I think "a couple of" means "2", but could it be more than 2?
Also, I think "a few" means " 2 or 3", but could it mean "4 or 5" also?
when you say "many" or "a lot", would it mean more than 50%? or 70%??

I know that in Japanese we do have those vague expressions, like ﾂ渉ｭ窶堙遺?堋ｩ窶堙ｧ窶堋ｸ, 窶堋ｽ窶堋ｭ窶堋ｳ窶堙ｱ窶堙個 or 窶堋｢窶堋ｭ窶堙や?堋ｩ窶堙?

ﾂ「ﾂ静｢窶佚寂?堙俄?堋ｱ窶堙ｪﾂ！ﾂ」窶堙??堋｢窶堋､窶愬｡窶堋ｦ窶堋ｶ窶堙｡窶堙遺?堋ｭ窶堙??堋｢窶堋｢窶堙娯?堙?、窶佚･窶佚娯?堙??堙娯?堋ｮ窶堙ｧ窶堋｢窶堋ｪ窶禿塒??窶堙遺?堙娯?堋ｩ
窶ｹﾂｳ窶堋ｦ窶堙??堙?窶堙ｧ窶堋ｦ窶堙ｩ窶堙?鞘?｢窶堋ｩ窶堙ｨ窶堙懌?堋ｷﾂ。

Thank you in advance for your help.

Q

A few, a bunch, a couple, many, much, teeny, tiny, big, huge... English has a lot of words that are non-specific when it comes to counting.

A couple is a good example that you list. Where literally it usually means two, since this is couple's definition, but it's not specific. Generally speaking though, I think it depends on what is being talked about, "Can I have a couple of dollars?"... You may give the person more than simply two dollars, but if someone asks at a store, "May I have a couple of apples please?", you'll probably get two apples.

Small things, and vague quantity may make the word couple count more than two.

Many is best used to state that a large number of things exist, "Many snowflakes fell that night...", but it remains unknown compared to anything else... Many is meant mainly to state "A quantity much more than A few, and greater than moderate..."

A lot is the same, though it can mean both "A lot of people drive cars to work", meaning, the number of people who drives cars is proportionately high, or "How much does that car cost?" "A lot!" meaning, quite expensive, comparitively...

I know a lot of this sounds vague, and it is, the best thing I think is to find different usages of the word and see how the phrases can be used... I use the same techniques w/ learning Japanese which have many many words that can be used in a variety of ways.

I hope this helps, some. : )

Cue said:

1) a few ?
2) not a few?
3) a couple of ?
4) several?
5) many?
6) a lot?

Click to expand...

1) 2,3,4 or so
2) hrm, I would need context for that.
3) usually two, sometimes more
4) 6-7, or more, but not huge amounts usually
5) depends upon context, more than 2 or 3
6) this is often a non-counted volume quantity, such as "a lot of water", but otherwise the same as "many"

Ohh, yes, it does help me a lot! Thank you, Yukio san!

Yes, that word "couple" confuses me often!
I see. So, it depends a lot on the context and situation, and you can't just specify how many.

If I wanted to list them in ascending order, would this be close?
one < a couple of < a few < several < a bunch of < many (= a lot) ?
I know it's hard to list them in order anyway, but I'd like to have a general idea... ^^;

窶ｰﾃｼ窶堙溪?堙?、ﾆ停??ﾆ鱈ﾆ棚窶堋ｳ窶堙ｱﾂ、窶堙??堋､窶堙?窶堋?窶堙ｨ窶堋ｪ窶堙??堋､窶堋ｲ窶堋ｴ窶堋｢窶堙懌?堋ｵ窶堋ｽﾂ！

ﾂ…窶堙≫?堙??堋ｱ窶堋ｱ窶堙懌?堙?鞘?倪?堋｢窶堋ｽ窶堙??堋ｱ窶堙ｫ窶堙?rin窶堋ｳ窶堙ｱ窶堙個鞘?倪?堋ｫﾂ最ｾ窶堙昶?敖ｭﾅ陳ｩﾂ！
窶堋?窶塲ｸﾂ、窶堙遺?堙ｩ窶堙吮?堙?！窶堋ｷ窶堋ｲ窶堋ｭ窶堙ｭ窶堋ｩ窶堙ｨ窶堙｢窶堋ｷ窶堋｢窶堙??堋ｷﾂ！

As to 2) and 5), for instance, would "Not a few people watch anime" and "Many people watch anime" sound about the same?

Thank you again Yukio san and Srin san!! It's so helpful and useful to me!!

Q

窶堋?ﾂーﾂ、窶堋ｨ窶堙?窶堋ｵ窶堙ｫ窶堋｢ﾅｽﾂｿ窶禿｢窶堙??堋ｷ窶堙仰。ﾅｽ窶樞?堙?ﾅ?窶樞?堙ｨ窶堋ｱ窶堙ｱ窶堙??堋｢窶堋｢窶堙??堋ｷ窶堋ｩﾂ？
This is an interesting thread. Can I cut in?

ﾂ催??ｹﾃ殯uite aﾂ few窶堋ｪmany窶堙ｰ窶｢\窶堋ｷ窶堋ｱ窶堙??堙ｰ窶冦窶堙≫?堋ｽ窶堙娯?堙??堋ｷ窶堋ｪﾂ、not a few 窶堙? quite a few 窶堙?ﾂ many 窶堙??慊ｯ窶堋ｶ窶堙ｦ窶堋､窶堙嫁ｽg窶堋､窶堙娯?堙??堋ｵ窶堙･窶堋､窶堋ｩﾂ？
I've just learned that "quite a few" meant "many".
Do both "not a few" and "quite a few" mean "many"?

窶堋?窶堙?、a handful of 窶堙?ﾂ催??ｹﾃ溪?ｹﾂｳ窶堋ｦ窶堙??堙?窶堙ｧ窶堋｢窶堙懌?堋ｵ窶堋ｽﾂ。窶啜ﾂ，窶啅ﾅ津や?堙??堋｢窶堋､窶堋ｱ窶堙??堋ｾ窶堋ｻ窶堋､窶堙??堋ｷﾂ。
I've also learned about " a handful of". I heard it meant around 5 or 6.

several 窶堙ｦ窶堙ｨ窶堙坂?堙?窶堋､ﾂ渉ｭ窶堋ｵspecific窶堙??堋｢窶堋､窶堋ｱ窶堙??堋ｩ窶堙按？
I guess it's a kind of "several" but more specific than "several".
Am I right?

I can't remember ever hearing "not a few," to be honest. I can only think of a few instances when it could be used.

I think "lots of people watch anime" is more colloquial, but "many people watch anime" has the same meaning. I can't really think of when "not a few people watch anime" would be appropriate. In this case, "many" or "lots" would probably be in the thousands at least, and probably would extend to the millions.

Cue, I think your order is right, but I think that "several" and "a bunch of" are pretty much the same in terms of number.

koruri, "quite a few" is like "many." "Not a few" would be too, as far as I know.

I think you're right about "a handful of." Although, I don't know that it's more specific than "several"; I think it's probably more colloquial.

My guess is that even among native speakers there isn't much of a consensus. There are probably some pretty varied definitions depending on the person. Also, as srintuar said, context also plays a role in some cases. For instance, the "lots" in "lots of people watch anime" is vastly different than the "lots" in "lots of my family members are musicians." Since the first sentence is more about the general population, you're dealing with a much larger number than with the family members example. Also, the percentages could be very different as well. In the anime example, it could only be 5% of the actual population, but the sentence to me has the feeling that "(you probably think that the number of people who watch anime is pretty low, but) lots of people watch anime." In the family example, we're probably talking about more than half of the people being musicians.

But then again, it could also be that you're comparing your family to the average family, and again it could only be 10% of your family that are musicians, whereas most families only comprise 2% musicians.

So, the point of all of that is that context is very important when interpreting "many" or "lots." I hope that made some sense.

koruri said:

窶堋?窶堙?、a handful of 窶堙?ﾂ催??ｹﾃ溪?ｹﾂｳ窶堋ｦ窶堙??堙?窶堙ｧ窶堋｢窶堙懌?堋ｵ窶堋ｽﾂ。窶啜ﾂ，窶啅ﾅ津や?堙??堋｢窶堋､窶堋ｱ窶堙??堋ｾ窶堋ｻ窶堋､窶堙??堋ｷﾂ。
I've also learned about " a handful of". I heard it meant around 5 or 6.

Click to expand...

Glenn said:

I think you're right about "a handful of." Although, I don't know that it's more specific than "several"; I think it's probably more colloquial.

Click to expand...

A handful窶堋ｪseveral窶堙??慊ｯ窶堋ｶ窶堙ｦ窶堋､窶堙依?凪?督｡窶堋ｾ窶堙??堋｢窶堋､窶堙娯?堙坂?冦窶堙ｨ窶堙懌?堋ｹ窶堙ｱ窶堙??堋ｵ窶堋ｽﾂ。
Somehow, whenever I hear/read "a handful", another meaning is popping in my head.

i.e. The child is rather a handful. (= the child is rather difficult to control.)

Oh, it has that meaning too. But in this instance it's more like "there were only a handful of people there."

おぉぉ！続々とためになる表現が！
教えてくださってありがとうございます！

なるほど～、handful にそんな使い方もあるんですね。勉強になりました！

Thank you so much, you guys, for all the explanation and information!!

Q

Cue said:

As to 2) and 5), for instance, would "Not a few people watch anime" and "Many people watch anime" sound about the same?

Click to expand...

kokuri said:

Do both "not a few" and "quite a few" mean "many"?

Click to expand...

Ah, in that case I think the person is saying that in such a way to counter the listener's implicit assumption that only a few people watch anime.
Other than special cases like that "not a few" is seldom ever used.
It is equilavent to saying "a significant amount" but less strong than saying "many".

After readning Srin san's reply, I reread this thread again.

Yeah, even in Japanese we have many vague expressions.
I searched about "not a few" and "quite a few" at Space Alc.

THey say "not a few" means "ﾂ渉ｭ窶堙遺?堋ｩ窶堙ｧ窶堙環、窶堋ｩ窶堙遺?堙ｨ窶堙個絶?昶?堙個、窶佛?窶懌?督絶?昶?堙? and give an example "not a few countries in the world"ﾂ（ﾂ青｢ﾅ?E窶吮??窶堙個渉ｭ窶堙遺?堋ｩ窶堙ｧ窶堋ｴ窶堙ｩﾂ坂?伉々ﾂ）.
Hmm, when I hear the word "ﾂ渉ｭ窶堙遺?堋ｩ窶堙ｧ窶堋ｴ窶堙ｩ", I won't think it meant 窶堋ｩ窶堙遺?堙ｨ窶堙個絶? or 窶堋ｽ窶堋ｭ窶堋ｳ窶堙ｱ窶堙?,,.
Maybe when I hear the expression ﾂ青｢ﾅ?E窶吮??窶堙娯?堋ｽ窶堋ｭ窶堋ｳ窶堙ｱ窶堙個坂?伉々ﾂ、I'll imagine more countruies than ﾂ青｢ﾅ?E窶吮??窶堙個渉ｭ窶堙遺?堋ｩ窶堙ｧ窶堋ｴ窶堙ｩﾂ坂?伉々.

At the same time, I feel 窶堋ｽ窶堋ｭ窶堋ｳ窶堙ｱ窶堙個坂?伉々ﾂ is a neutral expression and ﾂ渉ｭ窶堙遺?堋ｩ窶堙ｧ窶堋ｴ窶堙ｩﾂ坂?伉々 implies something that the writer wants to say....like the number of those countries is supposed to be small but there are more countries than supposed.

Anyway don't you think many kinds of expressions make the sentence rich?
ﾂ（Hmmm I want to say 窶堙??堙俄?堋ｩ窶堋ｭﾂ、窶堋｢窶堙ｫ窶堋｢窶堙ｫ窶堙遺?｢\ﾅ陳ｻ窶｢ﾃｻ窶邸窶堋ｪ窶｢ﾂｶ窶堙ｰ窶鏑窶堋ｩ窶堙俄?堋ｷ窶堙ｩ窶堙?ｽv窶堋｢窶堙懌?堋ｹ窶堙ｱ窶堋ｩﾂ？ﾂ）

This is just my feeling and I hope my post makes sense.....
Please ignore my post if you are confused.

I rewrite my post because I don't think I should have used 窶ｰﾂｼ窶凖ｨ窶邸 in this sentence.