2022-01-29
ศัพท์ น่าสับสน - Set – C - couple
แนะนำการใช้ ตามที่ส่วนใหญ่ใช้ แต่ละท้องถิ่น
ความหมาย อาจผันแปร ตาม ตำแหน่ง/หน้าที่ ในประโยค
Dictionary.com:
ออกเสียง couple = “KUHP-uhl”
Common Errors in English Usage Dictionary
Instead of “she went with a couple sleazy guys before she met me,”
write "a couple of guys” if you are trying to sound a bit more formal. Leaving the “of” out is a casual, slangy pattern.
Dictionary of Problem Words and Expressions:
Couple
In ordinary conversation,
couple is sometimes placed immediately before a noun
(acouple weeks, a couple dollars).
Although this usage follows that of dozen (a dozen roses).
It is not standard; couple should be followed by of
(acouple of months).
However, when such words as less and more appear,
the of is dropped (a couple more seats).
Couple may correctly be used with a singular or a plural verb:
“The couple was dancing” or “The couple were dancing.”
“Couple together” is a wordy phrase.
“Couple alone expresses the idea; omit together.
Dictionary.com:
GRAMMAR NOTES FOR COUPLE
The phrase a couple of, meaning “a small number of; a few; several,”
has been in standard use for centuries,
especially with measurements of time and distance
and in referring to amounts of money:
They walked a couple of miles in silence.
Repairs will probably cost a couple of hundred dollars.
The phrase is used in all but the most formal speech and writing.
The shortened phrase a couple, without of
( The gas station is a couple miles from here ),
is an Americanism of recent development
that occurs chieflyin informal speech or representations of speech,
especially when followed bynumber terms (as a couple dozen eggs )
or units of measurement (as a couple years ago; a couple gallons of gas ).
This use of couple (as an adjective or modifier) is still disliked by many.
Without a following noun, a couple is even more informal:
Jack shouldn't drive. It's clear he's had a couple.
(Here the noun drinks is omitted.)
In referring to two people, couple, like many collective nouns,
may take either a singular or a plural verb.
Most commonly, it is construed as a plural:
The couple were traveling to Texas.
See also collective noun.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary:
Is couple an adjective?: Usage Guide
Adjective
The adjective use of a couple, without of,
has been called nonstandard, but it is not.
In both British and American English
it is standard before a word (such as more or less) indicating degree.
a couple more examples of Middle English writing — Charles Barber
Its use before an ordinary plural noun is an Americanism,
common in speech and in writing
that is not meant to be formal or elevated.
the first couple chapters are pretty good — E. B. White (letter)
still operated a couple wagons for hire — Garrison Keillor
It is most frequently used with
periods of time a couple weeks
and numbers. a couple hundred a couple dozen
Merriam-Webster Dictionary:
Usage Notes
Is 'Couple' Singular or Plural?
It depends on how it's used
At first glance
there would appear to be very little about the word couple
which could confuse anyone,
or about which one might raise any objections.
It is a simple little word,
unassuming perhaps, and without any great aspirations,
but workmanlike and stoic.
But once you begin to examine this word
a veritable cavalcade of questions arise.
Is couple always used in the singular, or can it be plural?
Must it refer to naught but two,
or may it also mean “three,”
or even some larger and indeterminate number?
Should you write
"I’ve got a couple bones to pick with you, Merriam-Webster,"
or should it be "a couple of bones"?
We don’t have an answer to that last question.
However, we do have some things to say on the subject of couple.
The first thing we would say is that
if you have come to this word with some hope
that you will find a lack of semantic ambiguity,
you have set yourself up for disappointment.
Is couple singular or plural?
Couple is a singular noun.
It is, however, also a collective noun,
and these creatures will sometimes find themselves
paired with a plural verb,
and sometimes with a singular one.
The advice that editors and usage guides
will typically give in this case is
to strive for agreement in your writing;
if you are writing of your in-laws
and introduce them by stating “the family is crazy”
you should not later change to writing “the family are.”
Additionally, it is suggested that,
when possible, the writer should attempt to use
the plural or singular verb
depending on how they are thinking of
the members of this collective noun.
(as individuals or as a group).
Thus, when writing of a couple getting married (or divorced)
it appears to be more common to consider them as two distinct people, and to use the plural form ("the couple are to be wed…”).
When writing of a couple who are an established entity,
it is more common to pair them with a singular verb
(“the couple has three children, each more loathsome than the next”).
It should be noted that,
no matter what kind of verb you pair couple with,
the pronoun of choice will always be a plural one (they, them, or their).
Can couple refer to three things?
Yes! You may not like it,
but whether or not you like
a particular use of a word has very little effect
on how tens of millions of other people will use it.
This is sad, but true.
Some usage guides will advise
against using couple to refer to
the three or seven beers you had last evening,
but most modern dictionaries include a definition for couple
that is more or less “somewhere in the neighborhood of two.”
Dictionaries do not include this definition to make you unhappy;
they include it because it accurately reflects
the language use of a substantial number of people.
Is it "a couple of bones" or "a couple bones"?
The nice thing about this question is that
no matter what answer you settle on,
there will be some guides of yore (or of late)
which state that you have made the wrong choice,
thus freeing you from having to worry overmuch.
In the late 19th century, a number of commentators held that
couple should not be simply used for any group of two,
but only for two things that were linked or united.
This was based on the etymological fallacy
that because couple comes from the Latin word for “bond” (copula)
it should retain that meaning in English.
But a new complaint came about in the 20th century,
when people noticed that couple was being used as
a quasi-adjective (“can you lend me a couple dollars?”).
This caused many guides to take the position that,
since couple hasn’t filled out all the proper paperwork
to get its adjective visa yet and is still properly a noun,
it should always be followed by of in this use.
Our records indicate that
couple is routinely used without being followed by of in general writing
(especially when used with more;
“I’ll have a couple of more” sounds quite odd).
This prepositional omission is generally avoided in formal writing.
We will end here. We still do not know why life must be so hard.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary:
Usage Notes
'Couple,' 'Few,' and 'Several':
The (Mostly) Definitive Guide
More than several/a few/a couple of you have asked.
What to Know
Couple is used when referring to two things,
as in "a couple of days ago,"
whereas few and several are less specific.
Few means "not many but some,"
as in "The train leaves in a few minutes,"
and several denotes more than the words couple and few do
but implies lesser than the word many does.
One of the gripes lexicographers hear with regularity
is that people don't use words precisely or accurately.
Many such complaints, however, are guided
by the assumption that
we're the ones who should enforce precise usage
(rather than what we really do,
which is record the actual usage of words,
even when that usage is considered wrong, loose, or otherwise... squishy).
We are nothing if not helpful, though,
so we have taken one common set of words
that people often ask about
—and will offer below some general usage guidelines.
Couple History and Usage
Couple first entered English as a noun in the 13th century,
where it referred to two people linked in a romantic relationship.
The word is from the Latin copula, which means "bond."
The word was quickly applied to pairs, but by the 1500s,
it was also being used in the phrase a couple of
to refer to an indefinite but still small number of people or things:
We can verify that there were more than two letters
that followed Steele's assertion.
Once this broadening of couple began, there was no holding it back.
Couple is now understood primarily to refer to two
when used as a bare noun ("they make a nice couple"),
but is often used to refer to a small indeterminate of two or more
when used in the phrase a couple of
("I had a couple of cups of coffee and now I can't sleep.").
Its smallness seems to be relative:
a quick check of our citation files reveals that the phrase
a couple of years ago
has been used to refer to everything from one year
and change to eight years,
though most of the time the phrase
seems to be used of three or four years (when we can verify dates).
Verdict: couple is used of small numbers most of the time,
but usually at least two or more.
Few Usage and History
Few is an old word, dating back to the 9th century.
It has never been used of a definite number,
unlike couple: from the very beginning,
few was used of a comparatively small number.
The key word here is comparatively.
Few is contrasted with many, but both are scalable quantities.
For instance:
The "few days" here are describing
two completely different numerical quantities.
The King James Bible uses
"few days" to mark out the span of a person's life compared to eternity;
the excerpt from The Egypt Game seems to be
referring to the small number of days that have passed
since the visitor arrived and the narrative present.
In neither case
can you definitely say that
few refers to a number between, say, 3 and 10.
To make matters more confusing,
few also appears in the idioms not a few and quite a few,
both of which refer to many: or even the majority of a presented class:
Verdict: few is less than many or most,
and could be as much as couple or more than couple.
It's all relative.
Several Usage and History
Several came into English in the 1400s,
but didn't develop its quantity meanings until the 1500s.
(Several initially meant "distinct or separate" in English.) Yes, meanings: several originally referred tomore than one.
The many meaning is now primarily a dialectal use, fortunately.
In use, the connotation of several is that it represents more than a few.
We have one helpful citation in our files, sent there by a science editor:
When he looked at the planet Jupiter,
Galileo found that it was accompanied by several small satellites
or moons that orbited around it. [ed note: several=4 here].
— Stephen W. Hawking, A Brief History of Time, 1988
Verdict: in common use,
several is often more than a couple and a few,
though it is sometimes the same as both
and occasionally more than a few. Phew.
We hope that not a few of you were able to make sense of it all.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language:
couple
Usage Note:
When used to refer to two people who function socially as a unit,
as in a married couple,
the word couple may take either a singular or a plural verb,
depending on whether the members are considered
individually or collectively:
The couple were married last week.
Only one couple was left on the dance floor.
When a pronoun follows,
they and their are more common than it and its:
The couple decided to spend their (less commonly its) vacation in Florida.
Using a singular verb and a plural pronoun,
as in The couple wants their children to go to college,
is widely considered to be incorrect.
Care should be taken that the verb and pronoun agree in number:
The couple want their children to go to college.
· Although the phrase a couple of has been well established in English
since before the Renaissance,
modern critics have sometimes maintained that
a couple of is too inexact to be appropriate in formal writing.
But the inexactitude of a couple of may serve a useful purpose,
suggesting that
the writer is indifferent to the precise number of items involved.
Thus the sentence
She lives only a couple of miles away
implies not only that the distance is short
but that its exact measure is unimportant.
This usage should be considered unobjectionable on all levels of style.
· 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 sentence
A couple friends came over to watch the game to be unacceptable.
Collins COBUILD English Usage:
Pair - couple
1. 'a pair of'
A pair of things are two things of the same size and shape
that are used together, such as shoes.
Someone has dropped a pair of gloves.
He bought a pair of hiking boots.
When you use a pair of like this,
you can use either a singular or a plural form of a verb.
He wore a pair of shoes that were given to him by his mother.
A pair of shoes was stolen.
You also use a pair of to refer to something
that has two main parts of the same size and shape,
such as trousers, glasses, or scissors.
She has a new pair of glasses.
Do you have a pair of scissors I could use?
When you use a pair of like this, you use a singular form of a verb.
Who does this pair of jeans belong to?
A good pair of binoculars is essential for watching birds.
2. 'a couple of'
In conversation and informal writing,
you can refer to two people or things as a couple of people or things.
I asked a couple of friends to help me.
We played a couple of games of tennis.
You use a plural form of a verb with a couple of.
A couple of guys were standing by the car.
On the table were a couple of mobile phones.
Be Careful!
Don't use 'a couple of' in formal writing.
3. referring to two people as a 'couple'
A couple consists of
two people who have a romantic or sexual relationship,
for example a husband and wife or boyfriend and girlfriend.
In Venice we met a South African couple.
Married couples will get tax benefits.
You usually use a plural form of a verb with couple.
A couple were sitting together on the bench.