several hundred

[Winwin2011]

John: How much do you think you can get if you sell your mobile phone?
Me: Several hundred dollars.

Can I say " Several hundred dollars" if I want to say $300-900?

What else can I say?

 

[SoothingDave]

No. Several hundred would be 2-3.

 

[Matthew Wai]

I found something different.

'Several
1 a number of people or things that is more than two or three, but not many.'── quoted from http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/several

 

[Winwin2011]

No. Several hundred would be 2-3.

Thanks Dave

Do native speakers use a number to represent 300-900? For Chinese, we do.

Hi Matthew

I think you know what I mean.

 

[Matthew Wai]

Yes, definitely, but I have never come across an English equivalent of it.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

I'd be okay with "several," but $900 is pushing it a little. We might say "It will cost as much as $900" or "It will cost up to $900" - or "It will cost as little as $300."

We don't have a number that represents "$300 to $900." In fact, we don't have any numbers that represent ranges of numbers. To us, a number is just one number.

If it were $900, we'd say something like "almost a thousand dollars." "Almost a grand" is common slange. I know people who call a hundred dollars "a buck." They'd say "nine bucks." It's also slang, but not used as widely.

 

[Barb_D]

For me "a few hundred" would be $200-$400 or so.
"Several hundred" would be higher, though there is overlap. Maybe $400-$700.

It's hard to include such a big range. The upper end is three times the lower end.

 

[Tdol]

No. Several hundred would be 2-3.

Maybe it's a BrE difference, but several is higher than that for me.

 

[GoesStation]

Maybe it's a BrE difference, but several is higher than that for me.

I don't think of two as a possible interpretation when I hear several. To me, several is somewhere between three and six or so, inclusive. It's an imprecise reference to a small number. Two is excluded because I'd say a couple, meaning two or three, if I wanted to include it.

 

[SoothingDave]

I certainly wouldn't use several for 9, that's for sure. No more than a handful.

 

[Tdol]

I would go for something around 7, so my issue is more with the lower limit of 3 than the higher one. I don't know what other BrE speakers think.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Seven makes sense, and so do all the other opinions. I don't think we're going find a consensus.

Winwin, we don't have a word for it in English. We would say something like:

- between $300 and $900.
- from $300 to $900.
- in the three-hundred-to-nine-hundred dollar range.
- at least $300 but no more than $900.