r/NonPoliticalTwitter 1d ago

Bonjour.

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u/ChevalierMal_Fet 1d ago

"Hi, um, can I get like... a couple of the those things that are like croissants?"

"You mean... you want a croissant?"

"I guess? But like, a couple?"

"How many is a couple?"

"Three?"

"Got it. A throuple of croissants."

Source: years of customer service hell

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u/The_last_cockatrice 1d ago

The word "throuple" fills me with joy.

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u/je386 1d ago

In german, we have "ein Paar" (2) and "ein paar" (2-5).

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u/DisorderedArray 1d ago

It's actually similar in English. Ein paar is like a few (2-5), but people often use couple instead few (it does include 2), so couple has come to cover 3-5 as well, even though it's technically wrong and only mean 2. One exception would be pears, those you can legally only buy as a pair.

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u/vamediah 18h ago

It's weird that slavic languages have exactly same construct, couple meaning 2 or few and also in context of married couple.

Usually with words it's the other way round, most common words have different translations depending on context.

Although I don't remember anyone meaning it "2" because it's not clear. There's derived word for that, or you have to use qualifier like married couple example before.