is much more vague-sounding than my real answer: It depends strictly on which one I say. "A couple things" is exactly two. "A couple of things" may be exactly two, or may be up to four.
But[t] cracks about my weight are not pertinent here.
I meant to add that this distinction was the general consensus among the language geeks (information developers and otherwise) who used to discuss such matters online at My Big Imployer back before they all got laid off. Probably no more than half confessed to using the noun loosely themselves, but everyone recognized the use as common, and almost all understood the adjective to mean strictly two.
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syntheid
"It depends"
Date: 2006-08-07 03:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-07 04:35 am (UTC)We knew that.
Date: 2006-08-07 12:37 pm (UTC)I meant to add that this distinction was the general consensus among the language geeks (information developers and otherwise) who used to discuss such matters online at My Big Imployer back before they all got laid off. Probably no more than half confessed to using the noun loosely themselves, but everyone recognized the use as common, and almost all understood the adjective to mean strictly two.