Normally I think it's silly that people get upset about new ways people use the English Language. Only dead languages don't change and English is a living language.
Yes, I'm a professional writer and majored in English in college. But I also took electives in Linguistics for fun, so I'm not likely to be upset by new slang or other changes in the way we write or speak.
But there is one change that irritates me, to put it mildly.
Perhaps it would be more accurate to say it's driving me crazy, and I see it often in professional writing.
That change is using just "couple" instead of "couple of."
When I read something like "He ate a couple apples," it reminds me of the sound fingernails make scratching on a blackboard. (I'm old enough to remember that sound.)
Nobody would say "He wore a pair socks" or "A pair eyes peered in the window," but people think nothing of using "couple" alone.
Will we eventually be saying "People think nothing using couple alone?" That does change the meaning of the earlier sentence to one I believe is accurate.
Am I the only one who finds this change in our language irritating?
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