8mm Forum: Did you say "a couple" only for 2 or many?

»	8mm Forum » General Yak » Did you say "a couple" only for 2 or many?

UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!

Author

Topic: Did you say "a couple" only for 2 or many?

Winbert Hutahaean
Film God

Posts: 5468
From: Nouméa, New Caledonia
Registered: Jun 2003

posted November 05, 2010 09:06 AM

Sorry English is not my mother tongue.

If someone say, "I have a couple of 5" reel films", did he mean he has exactly two of 5" reel films or some 5" reel films that he is not sure the precise numbers

[Confused]

cheers,

--------------------
Winbert

| IP: Logged

Bob Pucci
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 520
From: Westerly,RI
Registered: Jun 2003

posted November 05, 2010 09:36 AM

Couple in english usally means (2)

| IP: Logged

Winbert Hutahaean
Film God

Posts: 5468
From: Nouméa, New Caledonia
Registered: Jun 2003

posted November 05, 2010 09:48 AM

Hi Bob,

what about "a couple of ideas hanging in my head". Does it also mean he has only two ideas, i.e idea number one and idea number two

or

some ideas?

[Confused]

--------------------
Winbert

| IP: Logged

Bob Pucci
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 520
From: Westerly,RI
Registered: Jun 2003

posted November 05, 2010 10:05 AM

Hi Winbert

Like I said a couple ideas in your head usally means two.

| IP: Logged

Martin Jones
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1269
From: Thetford , Norfolk,England
Registered: May 2008

posted November 05, 2010 10:15 AM

A "few" means more than ,say, three. a "number of" means "not sure how many, but probably four or more".

--------------------
Retired TV Service Engineer
Ongoing interest in Telecine....

| IP: Logged

Larry Arpin
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 953
From: Sunland, CA, USA
Registered: Dec 2006

posted November 05, 2010 01:08 PM

A marriage 'couple' is usually 2, meaning a man and a woman, or 2 men or 2 women. 2's a company 3's a crowd.

| IP: Logged

Michael O'Regan
Film God

Posts: 3085
From: Essex, UK
Registered: Oct 2007

posted November 05, 2010 02:02 PM

It's a funny one which took me sometime to get used to when I moved to the UK.

In Ireland, we use the words "couple" and "few" interchangeably. However, here in the UK "couple" means two and no more.
[Smile]

| IP: Logged

Graham Ritchie
Film God

Posts: 4001
From: New Zealand
Registered: Feb 2006

posted November 05, 2010 10:36 PM

That depends [Roll Eyes]

when I say eg I am going out for a couple or a few drinks I usually have more than than two....just joking [Wink]

like Michael a few or a couple simply means "two"

Graham. [Smile]

| IP: Logged

Steve Klare
Film Guy

Posts: 7016
From: Long Island, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted November 06, 2010 06:54 AM

In the US a "couple" usually means only "two" but may mean what a "few" should: three or more.

There is a NewYorkese expression "a couple or three" which really means "a few" in English.

Words like "estimate", "budget" and "schedule" are usually unrealistic minimums, epecially when it's either public works jobs or promises made by some people which other people are responsible for keeping.

--------------------
All I ask is a wide screen and a projector to light her by...

| IP: Logged

Graham Ritchie
Film God

Posts: 4001
From: New Zealand
Registered: Feb 2006

posted November 06, 2010 05:18 PM

For those that "English" is not the first language understanding it can be very difficult and its not always what you say but how you say it. I remember long ago I was working with a young apprentice from Paisley Scotland he said to me one day "me and ma bud is goin oot tonight". translated "well sort of" he meant "me and my girlfriend are going out tonight". [Smile]

I also remember a flight instructor telling me say "yes" over the radio not "aye" say yes... aye.. say YES [Mad]

aye even being away from the Scottish influence the last 37 years I still say aye instead of yes [Smile]

funny thing thing though I spent a full day training a youngster how to thread the projectors at work all he did was smile and say nothing, at the end of that day I thought he was having me on so I said right thread them up.....still smiling he got everthing perfect [Eek!]

last year I asked why he never said anything, the answer was he couldn't understand a word I was saying "picked it up by watching" I think I must have come across like Willie from The Simpsons. [Smile]

funny thing though we did employ a Russian for downstairs, looked more like he was X mafia, anyway his use of English was worse than mine.... what a team. [Big Grin]

Graham.

| IP: Logged

Steve Klare
Film Guy

Posts: 7016
From: Long Island, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted November 06, 2010 09:43 PM

Why can't the English teach their children how to speak?
Norwegians learn Norwegian; the Greeks have taught their Greek.
One common language I'm afraid we'll never get.
Oh, why can't the English learn to set a good example to people whose English is painful to your ears?
The Scotch and the Irish leave you close to tears.
There even are places where English completely disappears.
In America, they haven't used it for years!

('Enry 'Iggins)

--------------------
All I ask is a wide screen and a projector to light her by...

| IP: Logged

Brad Kimball
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1171
From: Highland Mills, NY USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted November 08, 2010 08:39 AM

What a great show. The movie stunk, but I love the soundtrack to the broadway show. Gonna listen to it today on the way to work.

| IP: Logged

Steve Klare
Film Guy

Posts: 7016
From: Long Island, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted November 08, 2010 08:59 AM

We'll agree to disagree on the movie.

The musical has some great songs in it that sometimes have the hard edge of truth to them.

Somehow "Let a woman in your life" always brings a wry smile to my face:

...BUT, let a woman in your life, and your sabbatical is through,
in a line that never ends comes an army of her friends,
come to jabber and to chatter
and to tell her what the matter is with YOU!
She'll have a booming boisterous family,
who will descend on you en mass.
She'll have a large Wagnerian mother,
with a voice that shatters glass.

This and Ethel Merman going ass over teakettle at the end of "Mad, Mad, Mad World" are two of my guilty pleasures at the Movies!

--------------------
All I ask is a wide screen and a projector to light her by...

| IP: Logged

Winbert Hutahaean
Film God

Posts: 5468
From: Nouméa, New Caledonia
Registered: Jun 2003

posted November 08, 2010 10:48 AM

Hi all,

I have searched on google and found that "a couple" definitely means "two".

http://www.google.ca/#sclient=psy&hl=en&q=couple+means+two&aq=1&aqi=g3g-m1g-o1&aql=&oq=couple+mean&gs_rfai=&pbx=1&fp=33299b53beab3b05

However with the current colloquial language there is a shift on meaning that "a couple' is understood too as a "few" although this is incorrect.

A good reading about this can be found here:

The Quasi adjective "Couple"

I can say here (e.g) in a hot discussion a person raises his hand for Q & A and start saying "I have two questions" and when he starts "first question, bla..bla...", "my second question, bla...bla....". If he continues "my thrird question" then moderator will stop him by saying "you said you have only two questions".

But on the opposite, if he start by raising his hand and say "I have a couple questions", therefore he seems to be OK for continuing "and my third questions is...".

Only if he continue to the fifth question than moderator will say "OK stop now, you have enough questions, please give a chance to others".

Do you think this is what happening now?

--------------------
Winbert

| IP: Logged

Barry Fritz
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1061
From: Burnsville, MN, USA
Registered: Dec 2009

posted November 08, 2010 06:25 PM

And don't forget about "several". I use that term for 3.....certainly not 7! LOL

| IP: Logged

Pasquale DAlessio
Film God

Posts: 3523
From: Bristol,RI, USA
Registered: May 2010

posted November 08, 2010 07:05 PM

7 would definately be "many".

| IP: Logged

Brad Kimball
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1171
From: Highland Mills, NY USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted November 09, 2010 12:13 AM

Steve.....My comment about "MFL" the movie is based upon my distaste for actors/actresses being over-dubbed with someone else's voice (Marni Nixon for Ms. Hepburn). It puts a damper on my willing suspension of disbelief when I'm aware that the voice I'm hearing doesn't belong to the face. I also thought the movie was a tad long. I saw a revival of the show on Broadway years ago with Edward Mulhare of "Ghost & Mrs. Muir" and "Knight Rider" fame playing Henry Higgins and I don't recall the live show being nearly as long as the movie. I don't know, for me, the movie just seems so padded. Now, "Sound Of Music" is one very long movie and yet I have no problem with its length. I'm glued the entire way through.

| IP: Logged

Steve Klare
Film Guy

Posts: 7016
From: Long Island, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted November 09, 2010 05:56 AM

(literally) No argument here, Brad. I never argue over subjective things: I'm more a numbers and graphs kinda guy!

I've heard this objection to My Fair Lady (and West Side Story) before and I understand why some people feel that way. I guess it comes across as a little synthetic.

Maybe because I grew to love both movies a long time before I was even aware of Marni Nixon (or Julie Andrews as Eliza), it doesn't really bother me.

Funny: Rex Harrison couldn't sing (and he told them as much) but they'd never overdub him in a thousand years! Instead they actually wrote some of the music around his vocal...style (-and it worked!)

I agree to disagree!...(Agreed?)

[ November 09, 2010, 09:44 AM: Message edited by: Steve Klare ]

--------------------
All I ask is a wide screen and a projector to light her by...

| IP: Logged

Brad Kimball
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1171
From: Highland Mills, NY USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted November 09, 2010 08:09 PM

Good stuff, Steve. You got exactly what I was going for. Many actors have done the "speak-song" thing in movie musicals throughout the years. I much prefer that to seeing someone burst into song and out of their mouth comes a completely different voice. There's a classic Harry Belafonte movie called "Carmen Jones" directed by Otto Preminger and it was ruined for me when I discovered that Belafonte (can you believe it?) was dubbed over by an opera singer because the producers felt his singing voice wasn't strong enough for the character he was portraying. I think it's the only instance of a singer being over-dubbed by another singer. Belafonte was the rage when the movie went into casting and he was the only popular male black singer they could think of using at the time. I don't think Nat King Cole could have pulled it off - he would have been too old for the role. Preminger, apparently was vehemently opposed to it, but was unable to convince the Fox execs to reverse their decision so when Harry is singing - it isn't him. Dorothy Dandridge (the female lead in the film) was also dubbed because she really wasn't much of a singer.

| IP: Logged

Steve Klare
Film Guy

Posts: 7016
From: Long Island, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted November 09, 2010 09:32 PM

My favorite episode of this is the interesting case of Anita and Maria singing "A boy like that/I have a love" in West Side Story. The plan was for Marni Nixon to dub for Natalie Wood and Rita Moreno to sing for herself.

Legend has it that the day of the shoot Rita Moreno had a cold and the final version of it has Marni Nixon singing for both of them.

At the end of the day, what can you say about it? Film is magical, and largely because it's built on clever illusions. Dubbing is just one of the bag of tricks they have. For example with CGI growing more and more powerful you have to wonder if many things seen on screen ever existed in our 3D world at all. We face a world where dead movie stars will start making movies again and seeing will no longer be believing. Makes a little dubbing seem kinda tame!

Sorry, Winbert: I guess the "couple" question never really got a solid answer, did it?

--------------------
All I ask is a wide screen and a projector to light her by...

| IP: Logged

Winbert Hutahaean
Film God

Posts: 5468
From: Nouméa, New Caledonia
Registered: Jun 2003

posted November 10, 2010 10:30 AM

quote:
Sorry, Winbert: I guess the "couple" question never really got a solid answer, did it?

Indeed Steve, I wish to get a couple of answers and I got this many.... [Wink]

--------------------
Winbert

| IP: Logged

Brad Kimball
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1171
From: Highland Mills, NY USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted November 10, 2010 10:40 AM

I've always took it that a "couple" means two.

| IP: Logged

Steve Klare
Film Guy

Posts: 7016
From: Long Island, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted November 10, 2010 11:04 AM

I think we've come full circle now....

-a couple of times, actually!

--------------------
All I ask is a wide screen and a projector to light her by...

| IP: Logged

Barry Fritz
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1061
From: Burnsville, MN, USA
Registered: Dec 2009

posted November 10, 2010 03:12 PM

I don't mean to be picky, but this topic was about "a couple". Shouldn't movie discussions between two members go somewhere else?

| IP: Logged

Steve Klare
Film Guy

Posts: 7016
From: Long Island, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted November 10, 2010 03:46 PM

I'm sorry, but your logic prevents me from discussing that subject in this thread.

--------------------
All I ask is a wide screen and a projector to light her by...

| IP: Logged

All times are Central

Printer-friendly view of this topic

UBB.classic^TM 6.3.1.2