raisins

hi,

Please tell me which is correct, a little raisins or a few raisins?
In a recipe,
Add … raisins.
<a few> is grammatical, but could it mean a handful ? To me, a few sounds like 5 to10.
Perhaps the only possibility to denote a small amount of some countable minute stuff would be “a handful”, “a cup/glass” or “some”.
Am I right?

I suppose you could rephrase the recipe to be more exact:

Add a couple of raisins
Add a few raisins
Add several raisins
Add a dozen raisins
Add a score of raisins
Add two dozen raisins
Add 1/4 cup of raisins
Add 1/4 cup of little raisins
etc.

Thank you, numerologist.
Actually, I wanted a yes/no answer to my question.
Yours seems to mean “yes”.
How many could be "a few raisins"?

Exactly 2 1/16

I'd say that a few means from 2-4, bit others sometimes give a different range.

I thought real recipies would call for something like 1 tablespoon of raisins, or 1/4 cup raisins. Over in Europe (Germany, especially), they'd probably specify 50ml of raisins, or 50 grams of raisins -- always sounds like chemistry lab to me.

Actually, it's 3-6

Thank you very much, The real numerologist.

why din't you use the english word: grape. Raisin is the french for it.

<<Actually, it's 3-6 >>


I wonder if 6 would normally be considered in the "several" range?

For a "few", 2 is perhaps quistionable, like 6 (and perhaps 5). When I think of a few, I think of 3 as the heart of the range.

"couple" -- 2 (maybe 3?, probably not 1 or 0)

"few" -- 3, 4 (maybe 2, 5, perhaps even 6?)

"several" 7, 6, 8, 9 (perhaps 5, 10, or even 4?)



Note: apparently Antimoon is blessed with two (or more) numerologists :)