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Massively off-topic – but in American English is "a couple drinks" correct? British English would be "a couple of drinks". Just curious – I notice this a lot of
by 0898 12y ago
Massively off-topic – but in American English is "a couple drinks" correct? British English would be "a couple of drinks". Just curious – I notice this a lot of US tech blogs.
- dav- 12y agoI can't comment on it being correct or incorrect, but I believe that it is acceptable in informal speech, at least in American English.
- GavinB 12y agoThis is common usage. I couldn't begin to tell you if it's "correct" or not.
- Tomte 12y agoIf it's common usage, it's correct.
- jere 12y agoThere's a little bit of discussion about that usage being an "Americanism" here: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/couple http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/couple
- Crito 12y agoBoth sound natural to my American ears.
- Gracana 12y agoI never thought of that as being strange. I think it's used this way because it fits with "a few," you know? "I had a few drinks," "I had a couple drinks." But fwiw, "I had a couple of drinks" doesn't sound wrong to me.
- 72deluxe 12y agoIt sounds wrong to me, and I see a lot of commenters here using "couple <insert item here>". To me in the UK, I would shove an "of" in there. "A couple of drinks". Perhaps those across the pond miss this important "of" word out.
- ubertaco 12y agoAs an American, it's conversationally idiomatic, but not generally considered "correct." You'd expect to hear someone speak it, but you would not typically expect to read it in an essay.
- pessimizer 12y ago'a couple of drinks' -> 'a coupla drinks' -> 'a couple drinks' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elision https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elision https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cluster_reduction https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cluster_reduction