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When couple refers to two partners or married people, it may be treated as singular or plural, depending on whether the couple acts as a single unit or as two separate people within the relationship: The couple wants to be married before the end of the year. The couple have not reconciled, and continue to live apart. However, if a pronoun refers to couple, it is almost always plural (they, them, their), and so the verb should be plural as well: The couple have [not has] repeatedly asked that their privacy be respected. In other uses, couple is often followed by of and a plural noun, in which case it is treated as plural: A couple of books were on the table. In informal uses the strict sense of "two" may be expanded to "several." The use of couple without of in such contexts (I bought a couple CDs.) is increasingly heard but should be avoided in formal writing.
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