Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Where the heck was everybody?!

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    #31
    A couple: Two of the same sort considered together; pair
    A couple of: More than two, but not many, of; a small number of; a few

    Reference

    The English language > You



    Comment


      #32
      All your examples are the correct usages. One would say something like that when they do not know the exact number of dollars they have or minutes they will use up, but they expect that it would be around a couple. However, to say you have a couple of bucks or you are going out with couple of friends when you know for sure that you have/are going out with more than two is improper. Just like it would be improper of Sheppard to say there are a couple of hundred people when he knows that there are 300 or more.

      Now, I never said you cannot use it to mean more than two. I've only tried to make two points. One, it's a leap to assume Sheppard was using the word improperly just because someone hears it that way where they are (which I'm not sure that you, personally, do since your examples are possibly fine depending on the context) and think it's common everywhere (which I will also admit that I do not know that it is common knowledge that you shouldn't do that - my point was that the writers would know not to). Two, someone who does not understand that you cannot use an idiom to prove that "a couple of" something always means three or more of something does not understand English. However you misunderstood what I meant and went into a tiny rant starting with you "explaining" idioms to me, I assume perhaps because you were replying to someone who said that "a couple of" never means more than two of something, while at the time you were also replying to me. However, FallenAngel originally acted surprised that anyone would use "a couple of" to mean anything less than 3 and continues to argue that point from what I can tell. Which is why I am reacting like this, not because the improper usage of the phrase to express more than two exists and I don't think anyone anywhere should ever use it.

      I'm not sure if he even knows what an idiom is as he keeps making quotes from dictionary.com and leaving out that it says -Idiom above what he is quoting as if it is unimportant...

      —Idiom
      a couple of, more than two, but not many, of; a small number of; a few: It will take a couple of days for the package to get there. Also, a couple.
      Meanwhile, ignoring this whole part:

      When used to refer to two people who function socially as a unit, as in a married couple, the word couple may take either a singular or a plural verb, depending on whether the members are considered individually or collectively: The couple were married last week. Only one couple was left on the dance floor. When a pronoun follows, they and their are more common than it and its: The couple decided to spend their (less commonly its) vacation in Florida. Using a singular verb and a plural pronoun, as in The couple wants their children to go to college, is widely considered to be incorrect. Care should be taken that the verb and pronoun agree in number: The couple want their children to go to college. · Although the phrase a couple of has been well established in English since before the Renaissance, modern critics have sometimes maintained that a couple of is too inexact to be appropriate in formal writing. But the inexactitude of a couple of may serve a useful purpose, suggesting that the writer is indifferent to the precise number of items involved. Thus the sentence She lives only a couple of miles away implies not only that the distance is short but that its exact measure is unimportant. This usage should be considered unobjectionable on all levels of style. · The of in the phrase a couple of is often dropped in speech, but this omission is usually considered a mistake, especially in formal contexts. Three-fourths of the Usage Panel finds the sentence I read a couple books over vacation to be unacceptable; however, another 20% of the Panel finds the sentence to be acceptable in informal speech and writing.
      I think that he thinks that when you say the word "couple" you are always referring to two of something, but when you say the phrase "a couple of" or just just "a couple" you are always refering to more than two. Which is totally incorrect. You are supposed to use "a couple of" when you do not know the exact amount (but when people use it as an idiom, only, it does mean more than two - you can say "he kicked the bucket" to mean someone died [that's an idiom] or you can literally say someone kicked a literal bucket). It could end up being 3, 4, or 5 of something, but you do not know that when you originally made your statement. Sheppard's line fits perfectly with this - He did not know the exact number given that he went even further to put "might" earlier in the sentence and the situation didn't call for having to know an exact number (he wasn't giving a report to a superior officer about their situation). However, Sheppard is not going to be more than 100 people off given everything we know about him and it would not be proper for him to purposely know that there were 3, 4, or 5 hundred people around and say "a couple of" anyway.

      Btw, I never claimed to know everything about the English language and obviously I don't given the number of posts I've made where I did not clearly get across what I was trying to say. Hopefully I managed that this time and I apologize if you thought I was at any time being hostile towards you which I assume was the case given your hostile replies. Let me know if there's anything I need to tone down and I will because I don't want this to turn into anything more than a friendly discussion. I'm a little annoyed with FallenAngel in general and that may be spilling over to our back and forth. This post is a perfect example. I started off addressing you, but explained things that were meant for him rather than breaking it into two seperate parts.

      Comment


        #33
        Originally posted by FallenAngelII View Post
        "A couple of hundred" indicates 300 or more people, at the very least. Otherwise, you just say "roughly 200". "A couple" usually indicates more than two.
        They did not have 300 people. If they did, a shirtless Sheppard would have exclaimed "This is Atlantis!" before killing a Wraith while Weir looked on.

        Comment


          #34
          Originally posted by Xaeden View Post
          All your examples are the correct usages. One would say something like that when they do not know the exact number of dollars they have or minutes they will use up, but they expect that it would be around a couple. However, to say you have a couple of bucks or you are going out with couple of friends when you know for sure that you have/are going out with more than two is improper. Just like it would be improper of Sheppard to say there are a couple of hundred people when he knows that there are 300 or more.

          Now, I never said you cannot use it to mean more than two. I've only tried to make two points. One, it's a leap to assume Sheppard was using the word improperly just because someone hears it that way where they are (which I'm not sure that you, personally, do since your examples are possibly fine depending on the context) and think it's common everywhere (which I will also admit that I do not know that it is common knowledge that you shouldn't do that - my point was that the writers would know not to). Two, someone who does not understand that you cannot use an idiom to prove that "a couple of" something always means three or more of something does not understand English. However you misunderstood what I meant and went into a tiny rant starting with you "explaining" idioms to me, I assume perhaps because you were replying to someone who said that "a couple of" never means more than two of something, while at the time you were also replying to me. However, FallenAngel originally acted surprised that anyone would use "a couple of" to mean anything less than 3 and continues to argue that point from what I can tell. Which is why I am reacting like this, not because the improper usage of the phrase to express more than two exists and I don't think anyone anywhere should ever use it.

          I'm not sure if he even knows what an idiom is as he keeps making quotes from dictionary.com and leaving out that it says -Idiom above what he is quoting as if it is unimportant...



          Meanwhile, ignoring this whole part:



          I think that he thinks that when you say the word "couple" you are always referring to two of something, but when you say the phrase "a couple of" or just just "a couple" you are always refering to more than two. Which is totally incorrect. You are supposed to use "a couple of" when you do not know the exact amount (but when people use it as an idiom, only, it does mean more than two - you can say "he kicked the bucket" to mean someone died [that's an idiom] or you can literally say someone kicked a literal bucket). It could end up being 3, 4, or 5 of something, but you do not know that when you originally made your statement. Sheppard's line fits perfectly with this - He did not know the exact number given that he went even further to put "might" earlier in the sentence and the situation didn't call for having to know an exact number (he wasn't giving a report to a superior officer about their situation). However, Sheppard is not going to be more than 100 people off given everything we know about him and it would not be proper for him to purposely know that there were 3, 4, or 5 hundred people around and say "a couple of" anyway.

          Btw, I never claimed to know everything about the English language and obviously I don't given the number of posts I've made where I did not clearly get across what I was trying to say. Hopefully I managed that this time and I apologize if you thought I was at any time being hostile towards you which I assume was the case given your hostile replies. Let me know if there's anything I need to tone down and I will because I don't want this to turn into anything more than a friendly discussion. I'm a little annoyed with FallenAngel in general and that may be spilling over to our back and forth. This post is a perfect example. I started off addressing you, but explained things that were meant for him rather than breaking it into two seperate parts.
          Dear god, you really believe you're right don't you?

          I give up. I'll let you win so you can have the illusion of being smart.
          These are the wrong people... in the wrong place.

          Comment


            #35
            Originally posted by Xaeden View Post
            Now, I never said you cannot use it to mean more than two. I've only tried to make two points.
            O RLY?

            Originally posted by You
            However, given the context and the previous quote from Sheppard, (a couple is never more than 2 of something for our English challenged friends in this thread) that one word is not enough to to make what Sheppard said invalid nor is it enough for us to be sure he really wasn't talking about Telya's people too."



            Comment


              #36
              Originally posted by Detox View Post
              Dear god, you really believe you're right don't you?

              I give up. I'll let you win so you can have the illusion of being smart.
              What is your problem? I try to discuss one thing that I believe I am well versed in thanks to a professor specifically covering this and you keep reverting back to snarky remarks about me trying to pretend I am intelligent. I have gone to great lengths to make my comments neutral so as to show that I was having a discussion where I was willing to listen to other view points and you instead reply with an attitude where you are absolutely right and I am absolutely wrong and then this. If I'm wrong about something, show me that I am and I will gladly admit it. All I ask is that people come at a discussion with the same attitude, but apparently that is too much to ask for. So, I'll tell you what - I will also give up on this and only return to the thread when I have actual evidence within the show rather than resorting to debating the meaning of some minor thing that was said. Fair enough?

              Originally posted by FallenAngelII View Post
              O RLY?
              I apologize, I thought/meant to say that a couple is not more than two (in relation to what we were talking about). Thank you for pointing out my error, I now see where Detox was coming from on that point. It was totally my fault.
              Last edited by Xaeden; 07 November 2007, 10:10 AM.

              Comment


                #37
                What does discussing English Language Grammar have anything to do with the subject of this thread?

                This is really over thinking things, and nitpicky to the extreme.

                Comment


                  #38
                  The sad truth is, yeah, well, straight from the script. The scene was cut out.

                  Apparently half of Atlantis' population heard there was a 2-for-1 white sale going on at the South Pier, so they all went down there. Alas, Lorne never got the flyer stuck under his door so he didn't know to look there...

                  Comment


                    #39
                    Originally posted by FallenAngelII View Post
                    There was only a very small number of people in the mess and the sick bay can only hold so many. As far as we saw, Teyla was the only one to be put in a holding cell.

                    So where the heck were the rest of the civilians? Was this the week where the majority were off-base for whatever reason? Were they all hiding out throughout the city (despite it being said that there were only a few stragglers)?

                    Plothole of doom.
                    Hiding in the city afraid that the soldiers will get them. Its a very Large city - something they went out of their way to re-iterate.

                    On the "couple" discussion. Its another difference in "English" and "American".
                    Coming from an "English" background, we are taught to use Couple as 2, Few as 3-4 and Several for 5 to 9.

                    And yes, I call "British English" outright "English" because it is from England after all.. What Microsoft calls "English" is "American" because its differences were born in America.

                    Just my two cents.
                    : I would very much like to have a weapon such as this.
                    : Yeah, Get in line.

                    Comment


                      #40
                      Originally posted by SG13-NightOps View Post
                      Coming from an "English" background, we are taught to use Couple as 2, Few as 3-4 and Several for 5 to 9.
                      I'm sorry, did you just say that if I were to say "I saw a couple of students back there" in England, I couldn't possibly be referring to more than 2 students?

                      Originally posted by Mattathias2.0
                      What does discussing English Language Grammar have anything to do with the subject of this thread?
                      Because An-Alteran brought it up and in the same breath (in fact, the same sentence) insulted everyone else in this thread by claiming we were "English challenged" for not seeing it his way.



                      Comment


                        #41
                        Sam: How big can this place be?

                        I'm sure some civillians were roaming the city like Radek, and while Sam and Rodney stayed in one portion of the city [we assume], it's likely that many were confined to quarters or locked in other rooms.

                        I'm also going to throw a theory out there that maybe some other people were stuck offworld or granted "shore leave"?

                        There are a bunch of possible explinations.

                        Comment


                          #42
                          Originally posted by FallenAngelII View Post
                          I'm sorry, did you just say that if I were to say "I saw a couple of students back there" in England, I couldn't possibly be referring to more than 2 students?
                          You could say it and mean more than 2, but people would think you mean 2.
                          Dont need to be snippy at me because we use words differently.
                          : I would very much like to have a weapon such as this.
                          : Yeah, Get in line.

                          Comment


                            #43
                            There could have been a few people off world.

                            Comment


                              #44
                              Maybe they just cut the following dialogue:

                              Sheppard: "The worst cases are in the mess, but it is cramped and there are so many people left."
                              Carter: "This is getting worse. I guess we have to lock the rest up in their quaters."
                              Sheppard: "They won't like that!"
                              Carter: "I am sure, but its better they are there safe in their quaters than walking through this large city, not knowing who and where they are."

                              Oh, and I learned my english at school, and that was some years ago, so don't mock me about any details, I just hope that you get the idea.
                              The cake is a lie!

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X