Proper Grammar

[Caribeing]

Which term is correct! when introducing two people, The next couple is or the next couple are!

[Old_Geezer]

Are you using "cattle" to refer to the many individual cows or to a single group of cows ? If the former then "are" would be correct.

[jim360]

I thought "cattle" was an irregular plural of cows, as in you couldn't say "a cattle of cows".

But otherwise I agree with Jackdaw, and it depends on context. Easier for me I think to demonstrate with a different word with the same properties: compare "The team is second in the league" v. "The team are wearing red shirts". In the first case, the "team" is one collective unit (as opposed to other teams), but in the second case, the "team" is really just eleven players, so should be seen in a plural sense.

[elliemay1]

Prudie, I am only saying that the correct answer to the qn that Caribeing asked is, 'The next couple is...'

[pixie374]

Elliemay is right... it doesn't depend on context either. Singular- is, plural- are.

[fiction-factory]

"The next couple is... taking off its coats" would sound odd though elliemay.

[Sqad]

Couple is a singular noun..........IS
Janet and John are names (plural) so....ARE.

[elliemay1]

But Caribeing asked, 'When introducing two people, The next couple ...' not ,'The next couple is/are taking off its/their coats'

[fiction-factory]

Okay, the next couple, who is taking off its coats now, are Jack and Jill.
I agree that IS is usually better for such introductions but I don't agree that it always has to be IS just because couple is a singular noun. i believe ARE is acceptable when the meaning is perfectly understood and in some cases sounds more natural. .

[jno]

///LOL! If you mean this: https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/couple, that's not the OED! ///

er, yes it is. It comes directly from a large book entitled The New Oxford Dictionary of English and published by the OUP (and sitting on my shelf).

If you insist on considering only definitions personally approved by James Murray, you'll see that one of them in the original OED says "couple" is a synonym for "two".