verb agreement with “couple”

With most singular collective nouns—nouns like group, staff or herd that represent a unit with many members—we use a singular verb when the members of the group are acting in unison:

• The cast is having a party.

And we use a plural verb when the members are acting individually:

• The cast are practising their lines.

However, the word couple is a collective noun that can pose special problems for subject-verb agreement.

A couple / the couple

With the word couple, it is sometimes necessary to use a plural verb even when the two persons forming the couple are acting in unison.

In the sentence below, for example, the focus is on the joining of two individuals, so couple has a distinct plural sense even though the two individuals are doing the same thing together:

• A couple are being married today in a joint Catholic-Jewish ceremony.

Also, it is difficult to use the neuter pronoun it or its in reference to a couple—so when couple is the antecedent for a pronoun, we choose the pronoun they or their, and use a plural verb for consistency.

• The young couple next door have just bought their first car, and they are very excited.

A couple of

A similar issue arises with the phrase a couple of (as in a couple of boats). Although it is singular in form, it has come to be considered equal to two and is therefore almost always plural in meaning:

• A couple of boats were driven ashore by the storm. [= Two boats were driven ashore]

However, when using this expression before a quantity of days, kilometres or dollars, you will need a singular verb, since measurements of time, distance or money represent sum totals that are singular in meaning:

• A couple of kilometres is not far to walk. [= Two kilometres is not far to walk.]

Usage note: The use of a couple (without of) before a plural noun (a couple trees, a couple days, etc.) is a colloquial American usage. To Canadian ears, this expression may sound odd or uneducated. The Canadian Oxford Dictionary calls it “highly informal” and recommends that it be avoided in writing:

• Informal: A couple trees have blown down.
• Preferred: A couple of trees have blown down.

However, it is correct to omit of when you use a couple before the word more:

• Correct: A couple more trees have blown down.

For information on the use of the preposition of after a couple, see couple of, couple more.