Quick poll:
What numerical range can legitimately be described by the word “several”?
@squareallworthy yes, in my usage.
5 to somewhere in the high teens.
You are an outlier. Consensus is 3-6, with some people including 2 or 7 (but not both).
I’m 3-7.
Related poll: what time period is covered by “the other day”? (If you wouldn’t mind, please add your approximate or exact age as well; I have a working hypothesis that “the other day” spans greater stretches of time as one gets older)
42. At least two days ago, but not long enough ago that I could say “last week”.
several = 4-9
the other day = within the last year-ish but sometimes longer
Good lord, that is almost as bad as how Mrs. Porcupine uses “it’s been a minute”.
Heh, my dad and I would drive you crazy.
My dad uses “the other day” to mean basically any point in the past. He has used it to refer to events more than 8 years ago. It used to drive me up the wall when I was young, but now I find myself doing exactly the same thing.
Hypothesis falsified; I guess my dad is just weird and it rubbed off on me.
Several = definitely 4 – 8, maybe 9 or 10
The other day = if I knew how long ago it was I probably wouldn’t be calling it that; likely not more than a couple weeks or so though, after that it defaults back to “a while ago” which could be any temporal distance
Age = 26
Tags:
#reply via reblog #surveys #time #language #is the blue I see the same as the blue you see
Brinens and Things 