I don't think this would be the most useful reply to the post even if correct, but both "a couple X" and "a couple of X" are pretty common constructions. I woul

I don't think this would be the most useful reply to the post even if correct, but both "a couple X" and "a couple of X" are pretty common constructions. I would use "of" in the case of "folks", but I think it's a pretty subtle usage preference rather than an issue of parsing; with other words, like "days", I wouldn't use the "of". Here is some HN usage: https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Anews.ycombinator.com+"a+couple" https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Anews.ycombinator.com+...