Is there some widespread legit misconception that there ‘several’ actually means ‘seven’?
I’ve encountered it a lot - for example when I once talked about ‘several decades of my life’, someone remarked ‘OMG, you’re 70?!?!’
Yeah, like I say, if it’s a large cat, some of it might be on my lap, some of it might be on your lap, and some of it may still be in the kitchen ;).
I mis-stepped earlier – “several” might include 8 and possibly 9, but I don’t think there’s anything written in stone. 5 could also be “a few” along with 3 and 4, but 6 in my experience is never “several.” This calls for some research; if I find anything official, you’ll be the first to know.
My personal rule is “several” and “a few” both entail 3-7 of something. This can change depending on my mood or the weather or a whole host of things.
Several is more than 2.
I’d say that for me it depends on context, but “several” could definitely include 3+. It just mean I find it more unusual or inappropriate than if I use “few”.
“He has a few cats” - he has 3 or more. (Or possibly just 2, but I’d except post hoc criticism.)
“He showed up with several cats!” - he brought his 3 or more cats to a wedding rehersal!
It would still be grammatically correct even if you didn’t go there at all.
It would also be a big fat lie, but it would be grammatically correct.
Agreed - ‘several’ overlaps ‘a few’ and ‘some’
It’s not as many as ‘quite a few’ or ‘many’
It’s nothing to do with 7, except that it may sometimes coincidentally be 7.
People may use ‘a few’ to indicate a notably small amount (‘only a few people bothered to turn up’); in the same way. ‘several’ may be used to indicate a small, but still slightly excessive amount (‘for some reason, he owned several coats of each different colour’)
But, how many items of something in a set do you need to eat to refer to them as ‘all’? If there are two snails left, and you eat them both, did you eat ‘all’ the escargot?
Yes.
All may mean the entire number (or uncountable amount) of something (all of the escargot), or it may be used to indicate a large number or set of something (all the people in the house), or figuratively, to emphasise something occurring in plenitude (she has all the eyelashes)
Another vote for one. If there is one pie and someone eats it till none is left, that person ate all of the pie.
“Dad, can I borrow some money?”
"You can have all the money in my wallet."
“Hey, it’s empty!!”
"There you go then."Apples and oranges. He ate all of the pie, but he did NOT eat “all of the pies.” He ate THE pie.
True, it’s probably weird even to refer to a single pie as ‘all the pies’ - if you already know it’s the singular, but still, consider:
You are entering a room; you know there was a table that had a nonzero quantity of pies on it, but now there are only crumbs; there is one person in the room, John, with a used plate in front of him, and pie crumbs on his shirt. Nobody else is around. There are no pies left and you suspect and assume John ate whatever quantity of pies was initially present. Without further information, how would you describe your assumption? I think ‘looks like John ate all the pies’ is succinct and sufficiently correct, even if there was only ever one pie there.
If you know there was only one pie on the table before John entered, then you might say ‘John ate the last pie’; if you don’t know that, but you only know that pies went from some quantity to zero, then ‘all’ still seems like the right word; the pies are all gone - because ‘all’ can denote entirety or completeness, without counting; all better - all done - etc.
Yes, there’s a clear distinction to be made between “I ate all the pies (which was one pie)” and “I ate all the pie”.
The first one fits the question criteria of this post, which is “how many in a complete set is required to use the term ‘all’ – as few as one?”.
The second one is just specifying the entirety of a certain unquantified amount, similar to “I ate all the chili”.
I think we have to get into countable and uncountable quantities here too - if there’s one glass of beer on the table, and Betty drinks it, it might seem wrong to say ‘Betty drank all the beer’, but if it’s a 5 litre mini keg and Betty upends it and drinks it dry, it seems just fine - even though the quantity is one in both cases.
I’ve about had it with Betty.
Don’t forget it was John who ate all the pies
Yes, of course there’s a difference between easily vs. not easily countable amounts. It’s like the difference between ‘less’ and ‘fewer’. If the refrigerator is full of bottles of beer and Betty drinks many of them, there are fewer beers in the fridge. But if it’s a kegful and she drinks a bunch, there is less beer in the keg.
Also, Betty should really maybe seek some help for her alcohol issue.
If OpalCat were still here, this thread would be a lot shorter.