This is closest to my belief, but I was taught that a couple was 2 or 3, no specifically either. This was because why would you call 2 a couple? I would say if a couple people got knocked down it was 2 and if you meant more than 2 people got knocked down, you are saying the wrong word.
A couple meaning 2 just makes sense. I was taught a few meant 3 or more but not a lot. I heard my Granddaughter tell a story and she said a couple. She told it again and it was a 3 or 4. I asked how many 2 or more? She said idk a couple. I said a couple is 2, she said well more than two but I am not sure, I said if your sure it was more than 2 but not many use a few.
One of the many things I do that makes me realize I have turned into my mother. I just had a discussion about this and after looking up what those words really mean I was confused. My thought all these long years is that 2 is a couple, a few is 3 and several meant 7 or more it seemed to me the first 4 letters seve gave it away.
Everything else was a specific number. A number a large number! It was very tongue-in-cheek, but I have been unable to locate it or any mention of it in recent years. It had entries like the ones in this thread, but also things like Many, Most, All represented as varying percentages , etc. I wish I could resurrect it from wherever it went! My husband wanted to be a diver in USN. The dictionary defines Several as more than two but not many.
Several, few, handful, bunch and some. These have no numerical significance. If you want to say an exact amount you would use the number. A few in this context being a subjective estimate. That line was probably a lot more clever in the 70s, this upcoming generation is shockingly polyamorous. Governor Murphy of NJ just said yesterday that we are still several weeks away from opening up our economy. Sorry, no. Whileas in Korea in Korean English education throughout the country—or at least the southern half, this topic is formally covered.
It sounds nuts, and English is nuts. Perhaps it would be 2 cubed 8 , or 3 squared 9? I loved the comment from Boston, n MA. The difference between a few, and several is that several is indicative of a number, with numerous suggestions above being appropriate, but a few indicates a percentage.
A few bad apples in a barrel might indicate 10 or 20, but a few bad eggs in a dozen might be two or three. Interesting read. Had to concede this one to the wife. This is exactly right. If a couple were a synonym for two, it would be a pointless word, the whole point of it being to include more than just 2 unless you are talking about two things that are always joined together, like 2 people in a close relationship.
Of course the right answer to these questions is always i it depends where you are, as local customs differ, and ii the context is also important. If you eat four donuts you can say you had several but you may have had too many — especially if you get a stomach-ache. Few is the opposite of many.
Several is used to refer to an imprecise number of people or things that is not large but is greater than two. The dictionary says it means more than a few but not a great number. The answer is that there is no hard-and-fast answer. A few is more than a couple, but not as many as several. This is an age-related question. It is desirable for the purposes of clinical diagnosis that the criteria are as sensitive, equitable, and inclusive as possible to avoid disadvantaging certain population groups and excluding them from access to services, support, and welfare benefits.
In addition to ascertaining the prevalence of long COVID in different population groups, which is an immediate priority counting long COVID , there are many other open questions in this area. We still do not know who is more likely to get long COVID and what the risk factors for developing it are.
We also do not know who is more likely to recover from it, and how it can be treated. To answer these questions, we need to understand the underlying pathophysiological mechanisms; for example, whether there is genetic susceptibility to long COVID, and whether immune, inflammatory, or persistent infection mechanisms are implicated. We need to characterize the distinct patterns of symptoms, and understand whether they can predict progression, prognosis, and response to treatment.
We still do not know whether long haulers are more or less likely to get re-infected, particularly if the pathophysiology involves inadequate immune response, and whether this means clinical deterioration. Follow-up of vaccinated people with long COVID is essential to understand the effect of the vaccine on disease progression.
Widening health inequalities is a likely outcome of COVID morbidity, therefore we must discuss how disadvantaged and marginalized groups affected by long COVID will be protected in term of care, prevention, and employment rights. COVID infection can no longer been described in black and white. One of the main challenges of the next phase of this global pandemic is to quantify long COVID, prepare the different systems across society for its enormity, help those affected by it in an equitable manner, and prevent more from progressing to it.
This is the task ahead of us. It is extremely complex and daunting but unavoidable. We thank the public contributors people living with long COVID with whom we discussed the definition criteria. Both authors drafted and finalized the manuscript. The authors declare no financial conflicts of interest. In October , N. National Center for Biotechnology Information , U.
Med N Y. Published online Mar Nisreen A. Author information Copyright and License information Disclaimer. Elsevier hereby grants permission to make all its COVIDrelated research that is available on the COVID resource centre - including this research content - immediately available in PubMed Central and other publicly funded repositories, such as the WHO COVID database with rights for unrestricted research re-use and analyses in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source.
This article has been cited by other articles in PMC. Main text In previously hospitalized COVID patients, persistent ill health seems to be very common, with ongoing symptoms including breathlessness, cough, fatigue, and mental health problems. Long COVID case definitions Standard clinical case definitions would provide healthcare professionals with systematic and inclusive criteria to diagnose patients with ongoing symptoms.
Acknowledgments We thank the public contributors people living with long COVID with whom we discussed the definition criteria. Author contributions N. Declaration of interest The authors declare no financial conflicts of interest. References 1. Nabavi N. Long covid: How to define it and how to manage it.
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