I have lived in the UK all my life, in fact I have only left the country acouple of times, but I have always taken the word to mean "about two", as well as "exactly two". Does any other UK resident recognise the claimed distinction between US and UK usage?23:24, 18 February 2008 (UTC)Reply
Since no-one has replied in the past two years, I've made a small adjustment to reduce the claimed distinction. The restaurant example is inappropriate because people tend to visit such establishments in couples! If you went to the pub with "a couple of mates", would there be exactly three of you?14:37, 1 June 2010 (UTC)Reply
I've also lived in the UK all my life, and I would always interpret "a couple of" to mean two, rather than "a small number", which would be "a few" or something else. Purposely using "a couple" for a number known to not be two would be very strange. If this type of usage is common in the US, or maybe even parts of the UK, then maybe there is some regional variation. Using it to mean "roughly two" (for something that is measured rather than counted, really) may be OK, and is quite different, I feel, from a certain number that isn't two. The OED (entry not fully revised recently, admittedly) also doesn't mention it being used for anything other than two. All of the quotes listed (on here) for meaning "a small number" could in fact be intended as "two".
As for "a couple (somethings)" rather than "a couple of", I have only really encountered that on the internet, and definitely consider it an Americanism. The OED agrees here too.Yeryry (talk)19:59, 8 January 2014 (UTC)Reply
Latest comment:15 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion
In "Write it Right", he gives this in his "blacklist":
Couple for Two. For two things to be a couple they must be of one general kind, and their number unimportant to the statement made of them. It would be weak to say, "He gave me only one, although he took a couple for himself." Couple expresses indifference to the exact number, as does several. That is true, even in the phrase, a married couple, for the number is carried in the adjective and needs no emphasis.
Rfv-sense: Determiner. An example would be something like "How often did you go there?" / "Couple times"
I haven't found it called a determiner in OED or the OneLook dictionaries that use 'determiner' as a word class. We need to have citations for our claim that it is a determiner.DCDuringTALK19:53, 14 March 2016 (UTC)Reply
"couple times" is AmE. It is not valid in BrE. This should probably be noted against any definition. My impression (as a BrE speaker) is that "couple times" is a shortening of "couple of times" that has no grammatical explanation or justification.81.152.230.19720:33, 14 March 2016 (UTC)Reply
If it did occur in the UK, it would, according to my understanding, be interpreted either as an Americanism or as a mishearing or misunderstanding of the phrase "couple of ...".81.152.230.19720:56, 14 March 2016 (UTC)Reply
Some recent examples from GoogleNews::::For example: "Miraculously, after a year out, Hutchinson decided to return to the game, re-signing with Chelsea and featuringcouple times in 2011-12, including his first Premier League start,"
Rory McIlroy (UK): "I guess the last couple times I've played here I've done pretty well, so I'm sort of going for three in a row in Dubai with winning here last year and then with the DP World at the end of last season," McIlroy told reporters in Dubai on 3 February,
About a death in Manchester: "Still remember thecouple times I made sure you got home ok either with or without Ze Ze Solomon."
Americanisms (as well as errors)do arise in BrE. However, they remain Americanisms (or errors) until such time, if ever, as they are generally accepted. I am not sure about Northern Irish English (yes, I know it is part of the UK).81.152.230.19723:04, 14 March 2016 (UTC)Reply
Couple things: 1. It's exceedingly common in speech and in newspapers, especially in interviews. 2. Itcould be analyzed as an aphetic pronunciation ofa couple. 3.Coupla can be analyzed similarly andlooks more informal, though it honors the memory ofof with an extra syllable.DCDuringTALK22:35, 14 March 2016 (UTC)Reply
The very conservative AHD includes:
adj. Informal Two or few: "Every couple years the urge strikes, to ... haul off to a new site" (Garrison Keillor).
Their usage note includes: "The of in the phrase a couple of is often dropped in speech, but this omission is usually considered a mistake. In 2013, 80 percent of the Usage Panel found the sentenceA couple friends came over to watch the game to be unacceptable."
Some style manuals rail againsta couple of, which is at least obviously grammatical, because of its imprecision. Since precision is not a requirement and may be an impediment in normal speech, speakers have simply ignored the "rule" and gone further to eliminate the obvious, but cumbersome, grammaticality ofa couple of in favor of (a)couple (adj.) and (a)coupla.DCDuringTALK22:52, 14 March 2016 (UTC)Reply
I have added a definition for determiner and one for adjective. There is no semantic difference, but there is a grammatical difference. The citations illustrate the difference, I hope. Could someone take a look?DCDuringTALK23:58, 14 March 2016 (UTC)Reply
Latest comment:4 years ago3 comments2 people in discussion
A couple of has been in standard use for centuries, especially with measurements of time and distance and in referring to amounts of money:They walkeda couple of miles in silence. The phrase is used in all but the most formal speech and writing. The shorteneda couple (The gas station isa couple miles from here), is an Americanism of recent development that occurs chiefly in informal speech or representations of speech. Without a following noun, the phrase is highly informal:Jack shouldn't drive. I think he's had a couple.https://www.wordreference.com/definition/couple
She lives onlya couple of miles away implies not only that the distance is short but that its exact measure is unimportant. Furthermore,a couple of is different froma few in that it does not imply that the amount is relatively small. One might say admiringly of an exceptional center fielder thathe can throw the ball a couple of hundred feet, but not, except ironically,a few hundred feet, which would suggest that such a throw was unremarkable. This usage should be considered unobjectionable on all levels of style.
Does "a couple of weeks" mean two weeks (couple in the sense of two of a kind, i.e. week) or does "couple" then mean something that is small but as large as 5 maybe? I am not sure whether I fully understand this right. It seems to be a timeframe with high uncertainty but still close to two, right?194.62.169.8613:45, 24 July 2020 (UTC)Reply
