If we really think about it, quantity expressions, other than actual numbers and words like “none,” do not specify exact amounts, and some vary widely in the actual amounts they can refer to. The choice of any one of them—“several,” “a lot,” “a bit,” “a few,” “many”– depends on how the speaker feels about the amount being referred to, and whether that amount feels small or large or somewhere in between.
The most specific of the quantity words are probably “a few” and “several”—and, of course, “a couple,” which usually means two, but doesn’t feel very precise. “A few” usually means two or three, or maybe four. But it could mean six or eight if one thought there might be sixty. (“A few” is always positive, though. It may be a small amount, but it is still significant.) Likewise, “several” means more than two but not so many as to confidently say “many.” Even though “several” is defined as meaning more than two, and therefore possibly meaning “three,” it is generally felt to signify a quantity larger than “a few.” Therefore, “several” usually suggests a quantity of more than four, but again, not so many as to make a person say “many.”
Other quantity expressions are even more vague about numbers and amounts than “a few” and “several.” The amounts they refer to are highly relative. “A good number of fish,” for example, could mean four or five if that’s the number of fish an amateur caught in an afternoon, but the phrase could mean several thousand if one is referring to the current number of fish in a lake, and especially if that number is surprising. These expressions with “good“—“a good number,” “a good deal”—refer to quantities that seem large to the speaker but still seem less than what the speaker would feel comfortable describing as “many,” “a lot,” “a great number” or “a great deal.”
“Many” is a highly relative term (as is “a lot” and “much”). It always refers to a number higher than two, but, other than that, it could mean any number from three to infinity, depending on what it is referring to and how the speaker feels about the number. One could say “many gray hairs” if one found three on one’s head and was very surprised, or annoyed, or just exaggerating. Or one could say “many stars” if one were actually referring to millions or billions. The only important thing is that the number feels like a very large one to the speaker.
“Some” is the most vague and relative quantity expression of all. In fact, we don’t often use it to answer a question about the specific quantity of something. If we do use it in such cases, we may give the impression that we cannot decide how to describe the actual amount. As a quantity word, “some” is most often used as the positive complement of “any” or “no” (e.g., “Is there any milk left?” –Yes, there’s some in the fridge.” “I saw some beautiful birds yesterday, but I saw no birds at all this morning.” “I don’t have any peaches, but I’ve got some apples.) Whereas “no” and “any” are used to negate or question the existence of a quantity of something, “some” is used to state or affirm the existence of a quantity of something. But, again, the actual amount of this thing is pretty much unimportant, except that it’s more than one, if the item is countable.
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