Why do Americans say “Couple things” and Britons say" A Couple of Things"
If you ask me the 2nd makes much more sense than the first.
For example, To couple things is to join together, as in The couple coupled, copiously. 
Whereas a couple of things is more than 1… "A couple of couples coupled copiously, i.e. a 4some.
If that makes sense :dubious:
Is there any point whatsoever to this discussion? People say things because that’s what they say. They don’t logically analyze what they say before they say it. I’m not even sure that it’s really true that only Americans drop the “of” after “couple.” People frequently claim that they (or people from their region) never say certain things when in fact they do say them. Even if it’s true that dropping “of” after “couple” is strictly an American thing, there’s no point trying to analyze the expression logically. Language doesn’t work that way.
I only know it as A couple of things. I am from the US.
I would never say “a couple things.” Anyone who does is simply choosing to sound uneducated. Which wouldn’t be a surprise; around here the stock way to tell someone from the rural environment is to hear them talk about how the floor “needs mopped.”
FWIW, Goooooogle shows 1.1 million results for “couple things” and 1.58 million results for “couple of things”. The latter is more prevalent, but “couple things” isn’t exactly unheard of.
You could almost say there’s no such things as Americans. (I know many people who would love to)
The place is so big there’s no real statment to say “American’s do / say X”
There is no X.
However to address the overall patern or explain some of the differances, after the war of Independance there was a deliberate effort to drop things that sounded “English”. Remember Congress were talking about making “French” the official language of the USA not English.
IANA American, this is just something I read in a book. (A good book, but just a book)
I’ve been an American all my life, and I’ve never said “couple things.” The first time I saw in written, it was the title of a message board post – I expected it was going to be about activities where single people weren’t allowed. I’m not sure that I’ve ever heard anyone say it, either, but I can imagine someone saying it when speaking in a casual sort of way. I don’t think it’s that uncommon for people to elide words, especially from common sayings.
I’ve heard this in the north of England, so it’s not limited to America:
A couple of things -> uh coupler things -> cupla things which morphs into couple things.
It’s hard to distinguish “cupla things” and “couple things” when spoken fast.
I am from the USA and I have always said and still say “couple of things.” I have never and will probably never drop the “of” because I say it out of many years of habit. It is just the way I speak.
I’d be shocked if that were true. (We usually hear this anecdote about “German”, but this one is also untrue.)
What’s wrong about “the floor needs mopped”? I wouldn’t say that, but I see no problem with it: the “to be” is implied. And anyway, I don’t find it useful to tie negative connotations (i.e. “sounds uneducated”) to some dialects.
In the US, *couple * is usually only as a noun or verb, not as an adjective.
It would sound as wrong to our ears as saying, “None people showed up to the party.” Although saying, “A couple people showed up to the party.” sounds perfectly fine. :eek:
I don’t say “a couple things” but I’ve heard others say it. I would guess it’s slang so you probably won’t get much of an explanation.
Isn’t “few” and “couple” kinda the same idea? Do you say “A few of things”? A few things or a couple things is fine. I dont think “couple” means just two of something.
To me, “a couple” means specifically two in most contexts.
“How many do you want?”
However, in Ireland this got confusing:
“How many do you want?”
Most of the time when I lived in Ireland, it was interchangeable with “a few”.
Exception: “How long will you be?”
Well just think about what it would be in writing. If you were to write “couple things” in writing, it would be highly wrong in the US. “A couple of things” while a bit less formal, wouldn’t be incorrect.
And as far as I understand, you’re only talking about the usage almost like an interjection. I forgot what you call those (first, therefore, however,) when at the beginning of the sentence. I doubt you’ll ever hear an American saying “Well first I’d like to bring up couple things” It may not be as enunciated as you do, but it’s meant to be understood. The problem with this kind of thing is that you get people who have no idea what the proper phrase is. A good example of that would be people who write “For all intensive purposes” instead of “intents and purposes” It’s just a particular phrase that people throw in there at the right time.
No, but they may say (and write) “I’d like to bring up a couple things.”
The OP is talking about leaving out the “of”, not the “a”. “bring up a couple things” as opposed to “bring up a couple of things”.
At least that’s what I gathered from reading it.
I’m American. I think the distinction needs to be made on if you’re speaking vs writing, introducing vs closing a sentence, etc. I can see the boss walking into the board room and going “OK, couple things real quick…” but i can’t see the minutes guy writing it down. He’d write (if anything) “A couple things really quickly”. I agree, and perhaps this is more to the OP point, that “I’m going to the store for a couple things.” is just as OK as “a couple of things.”
Come to think of it, I can’t think of an instance that violates this rule: “couple things”=few things, “couple of things” = exactly two things.
Or it “needs warshed”, of course.
I don’t say “a couple things,” Though the ‘of’ in my speech is sometimes said so quickly that it may well be heard that way. I definitely would not write it that way.
Concur. Someone might say “a couple things” when speaking carelessly, and then many times it’s more a question of careless pronunciation than of usage or grammar. From “a couple of things” to “a coupla things”, to “a couple things” is not a great distance. I think you could look at it as one of those things like "I’m gonna _______. We all know it’s supposed to be going to but usually don’t pronounce like that. But if writing, we write out the correct expression.