"in a few days"

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

Hi,

This is a line from a business e-mail, complaining about a delay.

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Every time I contacted someone, I was told this (the delivery in the context) would happen in a few days.

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I’d like to know the meaning of “in a few days”.
Does “in” here mean “after” or “within”? I know usually “in” means “after”. However, here, its meaning is like “within”. Should I find the meaning out of the context? What do you think when you first see the sentence?

Thank you in advance,
sweetpumpkin

2

I would expect that to mean that it would take about 3 days from the time he was told. (Certainly between 2 and 4 days, no later than that.)

3

This indicates to me ‘within a few days’ suggesting that this period of a few days is limited to that short period of time.

4

For me:
in a few days - 2-4 days
within a few days - 1-4 days

If someone said to me “It’ll be delivered in a few days,” I would not expect it to arrive the following day, and if it did, I would consider it to have arrived ahead of schedule.
If it were due for delivery the following day, then I would expect “It’ll be delivered tomorrow,” or if there were a possibility of it being delivered the following day then I would expect, “It’ll be with you within a few days.”