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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