The Quasi-adjective Couple

The Quasi-adjective Couple The Quasi-adjective Couple The Quasi-adjective Couple By Maeve Maddox Many English speakers cringe to hear the following construction: Jack has a couple tickets for the play. Counting myself among the cringers, I prefer the standard construction: Jack has a couple of tickets for the play. I prefer the latter usage because I cant accept couple as an adjective describing tickets. To me the dropped of comes across as slovenly speech. As a noun couple means a union of two. It had its origin as a hunting term for a leash for holding two hounds together. In modern usage it often means a man and woman united by love or marriage. Well, now it can also mean a man and man or a woman and a woman etc. As a verb couple means to tie or fasten together in pairs, or to join or connect in any way. The OED offers two main entries for couple, one as noun and one as a verb. The adjectival use is noted under the noun entry: quasi-adj. a couple more (..), two more (colloq.). All of the OED examples given for this colloquial use of couple are used with the word more: Just you hang on for a couple minutes more a couple more cops to hold them at a decent distance I wonder if I could dictate a couple more letters Its going to be a couple more months..before we decide what to do. The dropping of the of in expressions in which couple is followed by a word other than more is described as a U.S. colloquialism. The spelling coupla is also documented and given an entry as a U.S. colloquial form of couple of. One of the examples is from the writing of English writer Dorothy Sayers: 1934 Nine Tailors III. II. 276 Hed had nothing to eat..for a coupla days. It seems to me that the spelling coupla has a certain merit. At least it sounds like an adjective, whereas a couple tickets just sounds incorrect. Merriam-Webster Unabridged treats couple as a genuine adjective meaning two and gives the examples a couple more oaths and a couple nights ago. If couple in these examples means two, I wonder why the article a would be necessary: a two more oaths; a two nights ago. No amount of carping will alter the fact that the a couple tickets construction is here to stay, but you wont catch me using it. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Expressions category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:7 English Grammar Rules You Should Know15 Types of DocumentsDealing With A Character's Internal Thoughts