in Dancing On Ice, they are announcing who is staying and who is being kicked out.

Which is correct -

'The next couple is...'

Or

'The next couple are...'

Philip Schofield says 'is', I prefer the sound of 'are', but am not sure which one of them is correct.

Katerina

You need to get out more...

I think it should be is, on the grounds that 'a couple' is singular. If he said 'the next two people' then it would be are. I think.

Dee
Wish we had a puzzled smiley!

You get the same question with all sorts of singular nouns that represent groups of people - the class, the regiment, the crowd...

I can't say I've checked this evening, but with most of those 'is' is more logically correct, but 'are' makes so much sense that it's become acceptable. It's not as if it's ambiguous, after all. I think there's a UK/US difference too, the US being more oldfashioned.

For me I think it depends on what follows:

The next couple is swirling around the ice

The next couple is dressed in blue

The next couple are Joe Blogs and Jane Smith

The next couple are a footballer and a model

Emma

Dee,

Yes, I do need to get out more

Emma, thanks, so it wouldn't matter which version was used - it wouldn't be incorrect to say 'the next couple are dressed in blue'?

'Is' just doesn't sound right to me. I know 'the couple' is supposed to be singular, but 'couple' isn't - couple is two people, so it makes more sense to use 'are'.

Grr, confused now, but I think I would use 'are' until otherwise corrected.

Katerina

Officially, 'The next couple is . . . .' is correct. But as Emma says, it's become so acceptable to use 'are' that it is hardly incorrect, though I think in formal written English, I would mark 'are' as incorrect and correct it to 'is' (if I were a teacher, which I'm not, thank God).

Katerina, I've just looked singular collective nouns up in Fowler, and he confirms what I thought.

I agree with you that most of the time 'couple' still feels enough like two people to want 'are'. The examples I picked - 'is in blue' 'is swirling' - were the best I could come up with, and even they could be 'are'. Maybe it's because it is only two people, so we're always half-seeing them separately.

According to Fowler, as I thought, in British English you can use 'is' or 'are', depending on whether you're thinking of the noun as a single entity or a group. For example, 'family' is another collective, singular noun which can be treated as either singular, with verbs ('is', 'was' ) and pronouns ('it', 'its' ) to match, or plural ('are', 'were' and 'they', 'their', 'them' ). Again, which you do depends on the context of the word, (and obviously there are some like 'couple' which could be either).

'Mention The Family and it is something everyone approves of: no one wants to get rid of it.' 'I looked at my family: they are all people I hate. How could I get rid of them?'

As so often, Fowler says, US English is much more rigid (which usually means sticking to the old-fashioned usage), and insists on the group being a single and singular entity, using 'is' and 'it', whatever the context. I do wonder what the super-correct Yank does with a sentence like:

'The crowd were scattering, running away to their homes.'

Do they really have to say

'The crowd was scattering [okay], running away to its home. [Sounds mad to me. And should it be 'homes'?]

Apparently so.

Emma

That doesn't sound right at all. The Fowler version seems right, but like many grammatical terms it's up to the writer to see which version applies - maybe the US need rigid rules rather than having to use their judgement.

in British English you can use 'is' or 'are', depending on whether you're thinking of the noun as a single entity or a group.

It's done all of the time with bands, because you see the singular name as a collective term - but not always, ie

The Beatles are touring next year
Riverdance is touring in the Autumn

You just get a feeling.

But in that last example, it mixes singular with collective, so it reads wrong, unless the crowd was going back to a set location, ie "The army was scattered, but made it's way back the barracks" - we know that the whole battalion would relocate in a single place, but we instinctively know that people have individual homes. So although a computer or an alien might read it correct, we know it needs to be split: "The crowd was scattered; people fled for their homes."

I remember an incident of "I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!" where John Lyden was talking to Jenny Bond, saying "none of us were", and she corrected him to "none of us was - I know it sounds wrong, but it's correct"

How mad is that? If social trends in talking change, then shouldn't the rules of English. - what am I saying? If I go along with that, we can replace "said" with "like"

She was like, "He's ugly!"
And I'm like, "Whatever"
She she's like, "Ohmygod!"

It's time to leave the planet. We've all gone mad.

Colin M

I went to a tech writing conference in USA last year and this point came up in discussion with some Americans. They claimed that they would always use "The team is waiting" and considered "The team are waiting" to be a British-ism.

I know that doesn't help anything.

At a meeeting of Modern Foreign Languages teachers, there was discussion for a long time as to whether is should be 'Modern Languages (ie. the subject) is...' or Modern Languages are...' I can't remember what the outcome was.

joanie

I guess the same would be true of 'Social Studies' or 'Statistics'

Emma

And 'Mathematics', eh, Emma?

Rosy

And should "Mathematics" be abbreviated to "Math" or "Maths" ?

Logically, it's a singular noun, so the Americans are well within their rights to call it "Math"... but it makes Brits so cross!

but the singular noun describes multiple calculations!

This is one for the pub, with a good mix of English and Americans, all equally drunk.

but the singular noun describes multiple calculations!

Well it doesn't really, it describes the study of numbers, which is singular... there's no such thing as "a mathematic"...

<Added>

Ditto for "physics".

it should be is, on the grounds that 'a couple' is singular. If he said 'the next two people' then it would be are

Yes, definitely IMO.

I don't think Katerina needs to get out more (tho' I know you were joking, Dee). I think it's great to be interested in getting these things right, because if we don't bother with the little things then it's a slippery slope. It really annoys me when I hear tv presenters and journos getting these things wrong, since they (esp the journos, who work specifically with words) should know and act as an example to us all!

But maybe I'm the one who should get out more...

Deb

<Added>

[And should "Mathematics" be abbreviated to "Math" or "Maths"]

I think that's more a matter of convention TBH...

Deb