Not only is it bucking tradition, it goes against formal definition too. Larry and Sue are a cute couple, but once you add Greg into the mix it’s a threesome 
A few starts at three. I don’t had a solid cut-off point that I generally have in mind, other than you can count it on your fingers. I’d have to know how many what for context to be more definitive, because 8 chips is a few, but on the other hand 8 days off is several.
True, but colloquially, “couple” is synonymous with “few.” When somebody comes to borrow “a couple of bucks” you can be sure they’re not literally talking two dollars. I hesitate to use couple to mean anything but two (habit instilled by my English teachers), but it certainly can apply to numbers other than that in common usage.
Whenever I say a “few”, I probably mean four, but one more or one less won’t mess me up with whatever I want that “few” for. However, one more, to me, is overkill, so three or four is about correct.
Five to sex is “several”.
Three or four. And I tend to think of ‘a few’ and ‘several’ as being the same thing.
Three or four. Five is five, six half a dozen.
‘A few’ would be three, or four at most. ‘Quite a few’ would be 5-9. ‘Several’ would be be about 3-5.
(Several is definitely *not * seven.)
Good lord – are we about to see penis ensue?
Naw. “Quite a few” is certainly more than single digits, at least in most contexts I could think of.
And I, too, think of “a few” and “several” as synonymous. It just seems odd to me that “a few” would encompass such a narrow range for most English speakers. My original answer was 5, but my complete answer would be 3-7.
I’m with you and your sister, R F. To me, a few is single digits. I could have a “few bucks” in my wallet, and that might be up to $10 in change.
It was drilled into us by an unusually dogmatic grade school teacher that “few” means “three or four”. Five and above is “many” or “several.” Context was not a factor - that was THE LAW. I think her Bible actually contained the Book of Armourments, “…five is right out!”
At least 3, maybe up to 5, probably not more than 5.
Did you ever teach grade school?
A couple = 2 or 3
A few = 2 to 5 in most cases
For me it really does depend on the situation. If 5000 people were surveyed, and 4950 of them said they like chocolate, I might say “A few people surveyed do not like chocolate” and so use “few” to mean “50”.
But if I say “A few of us are going up to the cottage” I probably mean up to 6.
So I’m really just sort of random, I guess! Few means whatever the heck I want it to!
I happen to agree that the definition of “a few” differs a bit depending on the circumstances.
It often means just “Less than the number I think will get me in trouble.” As when an inebriated husband comes home, his wife asks, “Have you been drinking,” and he says, “Uh… not really. I just had a few beers.”
And when a friend asks if you could lend him “a few dollars,” he probably doesn’t mean 3 or 4. He means “As much as you can spare without it SEEMING like a lot of money.”
Gah. Six.
Which is quite funny really, when the term “he’s had a few”, when referring to drinks, usually means “quite a lot” (however many that may be).
I will generally go with 3 - 5, but context is important. It can also mean several thousand, as in “I will fix that leaky pipe in a few minutes, dear”.
I have always been a dogmatic “Few=3 or 4” type guy when asked this question. But now I realize that if I ask for a few peanuts, I mean a handfull and almost certainly not restricted to 3.
So I will join the “Context Sensitive” crowd.
Without context, the values are:
Pair = Couple = 2
Few = Several = 3
The day that several = seven is the day that the terrorists have won.
Three, exactly three. 