yesterday I learnt that apparently in English "a couple" is generally believed to mean two, exactly, which still feels weird to me, so let's do a poll

@noiob Ist das nicht das gleiche Konzept wie "ein paar" vs. "ein Paar"?

Follow

@puf @elomatreb ein paar is a handful, ein Paar is a couple as in two people, or a matching pair of things

@noiob @elomatreb ah! okay. i translate "ein paar" to mean "a few" but i wasn't aware of another form... surely they sound the same in speech?

@puf @elomatreb Germans pronounce uppercase letters as screaming, it's a bit unsettling at first /jk

@noiob @elomatreb ooooooh it's the same root as "a pair" most likely.... i.e. two things, often similar or matching. yeah. "a pair" / "a couple" mean slightly different things but it's essentially two of a thing. "a few" means three or more. HOWEVER native speakers don't always use the terms to mean exactly what i say above.

@puf @elomatreb yeah, English has a bunch of words that are kinda the same because one's from French and one's from German

Sign in to participate in the conversation
Awoo Space

Awoo.space is a Mastodon instance where members can rely on a team of moderators to help resolve conflict, and limits federation with other instances using a specific access list to minimize abuse.

While mature content is allowed here, we strongly believe in being able to choose to engage with content on your own terms, so please make sure to put mature and potentially sensitive content behind the CW feature with enough description that people know what it's about.

Before signing up, please read our community guidelines. While it's a very broad swath of topics it covers, please do your best! We believe that as long as you're putting forth genuine effort to limit harm you might cause – even if you haven't read the document – you'll be okay!