chestnut girl的部落格

早兩天在研讀一份英文閱讀考卷，文章寫某人八月時染病，a few months 後離世。之後翻答題簿，見對應的時間軸 (timeline) 上，寫某人在翌年一月去世。當時心想：由八月到翌年一月，大約半年，用 a few months 來描述，正確嗎？a few months 到底有多少個月？

根據 OALD 第八版，a few 解作 a small number、some，但記憶所及，a few 的數量應比「幾」要少。有道「無三不成『幾』」，a few 的數值應為 1 或 2。

之後再到 Wordreference.com 看別人的討論，見到以下留言，十分認同：

A number described as "a few" is always relative to what it might have been (and smaller than it might have been).
There were a few people in the crashed car: probably not more than 4.
There were a few people on the bus: probably not more than 12.
There were a few people in the stadium: probably not more than 100. 

(資料來源：http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=255950)

若 a few 的數量是相對的話，那 a few months 應該是三至四個月左右。文章的時差近半年，太多了。