In a message dated 9/25/06 10:33:31 PM, [log in to unmask] writes:


> It seems to me that 'couple' is singular in both expressions ("a couple" = 
> only one grouping of two in either case). In conversation, people often drop 
> the "of" in "a couple of Xs," but I think the preposition is really required 
> all the time.
> 

Good questions, Christine.   I think Paul is right when the couple is really 
a "couple," a unit of two, a grouping, as he puts it.   But we often use 
couple to mean several.   "There are a couple of mistakes in this email."   Here 
these mistakes are not a "unit" or a "grouping" and so I would think couple is 
plural when used this way.   Surely, no one would say "There is a couple of 
mistakes in this email."

The New York Times style manual allows both singular and plural senses, and 
goes on to "outlaw" phrases like a "couple pomegranates."



Peter Adams

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