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Script for October
5, 2001
A couple of weeks ago, at the request of a pair of listeners, we discussed whether the word couple must mean "two" or whether it can also mean "few." On that program (in which we concluded that couple can indeed be used to mean "few"), we quoted our questioner's use of the adjectival phrase a couple without "of." That usage inspired its own response, this time from a fellow who believed that using a couple without "of" (as in "I've got a couple questions") is improper.
Is it? Let's take a look. Printed evidence of a couple without "of" dates back to at least the 1920s. In both British and American English, a couple is commonly used before words that indicate degree (as in, "you may have a couple more turns on the swing"). In American, but not British English, a couple also appears before ordinary plural nouns: "He borrowed a couple dollars." It most frequently appears with periods of time ("a couple weeks") and with number words like "dozen" or "hundred" ("a couple dozen cookies").
But although the usage is found in the letters of E.B. White and the writings of James Jones and Sinclair Lewis, a couple is most common in speech. Our advice is to avoid the usage only in prose aspiring to formality or elegance.
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