Few/Several
- « Back to Q&A Forum
- « Previous questionNext question »
Few/Several
Hi Annie - this is definitely something that is down to personal interpretation so I'm not surprised that you don't find it quite matches your internal semantics. English is also far less precise than French. That said, there is a rough hierarchy to English quantities that works for many people.
There's an interesting write up here:
https://www.writerightwords.com/write-right-couple-few-some-several-many/
But, as I said, this isn't a law so it either fits with how you use the words, or not. Also I think "a few" is different to "few", which may help? For me, a few is definitely less than several. I guess it depends on the context as well though.
To me, a few represents a tighter restriction than several. If I said, "I have several of them.", it could mean a few or a bit more than a few.
-- Chris.
I am a native American English speaker. ‘Few’ and ‘several’ are the same to me. Equal to around 3. As a result, I am having a hard time ‘splitting the hairs’ between the two French words in this lesson!
Don't have an account yet? Join today
Find your French level for FREE
Test your French to the CEFR standard
Find your French level