"Drop me a line" vs. "Drop me a few lines"

[jupiter]

Hi my great teachers,

My freinds and I often, in our email, write "please drop me a few lines" or "why not drop me a few line" to mean the same as "please drop me a lines".

Is that possible to do so? Or does it make sense?

Thanks in advance

Jupiter

[Pamela]

Hi jupiter
please drop me a few lines is used in informal conversations ( I often hear this phrase from my English friends). You cannot say a few line.
A few+countable nouns.

[Yankee]

Hi Jupiter

The standard and commonly used expression is "Drop me a line." The word line is singular.

Saying "Drop me a few lines" would be a variation of a standard expression and, although somewhat unusual, is understandable.

Amy
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Amy
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ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English

[Pamela]

Hi Amy
Right, "drop me a line" is the standard expression. But most of my English friends tend to use "drop me a few lines" or "drop me some lines", thus, changing the standard, stressing the plurality of lines, that's why in my post to jupiter I aimed to do this.

[Yankee]

Hi Pamela

In my opinion, saying "Drop me some lines" is a much more unusual variation than "Drop me a few lines".

But I agree that changing the standard expression to the plural would emphasize the speaker's desire to receive more than just cursory information.

Amy
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Amy
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ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English

[Pamela]

Thanks, Amy

[Alan]

To me varying the standard expression: Drop me a line to Drop me a few/some lines sounds distinctly odd and makes you think (or at least it does me) that you are actually dropping something.

A
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English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story Not Really

[prezbucky]

"drop me some lines" could be taken to mean something entirely different from that which is intended...

Think to yourself:

Lines of what?

The common expression is "drop me a line".

In "drop me a lines" the modifier (a) and its noun (lines) do not match.
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Billie Jean is not my lover. Hee.