How to spell couple

hear itcou·ple/'kəpəl/nounRules and real life

What it means: A pair of people in a romantic relationship.

In a sentence: The couple danced happily at the party.

The part people get wrong

Watch for an unstressed vowel that is hard to hear. Often misspelled as cupple or coupple.

Same family: coupled, coupling, decouple, uncouple, link. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: Couple comes from Old French "cople," meaning a pair or bond, which itself goes back to the Latin word "copula," meaning a link or tie. The same Latin root also gives us the word "copulate," which literally means to be joined together.

Patterns it uses: The unstressed vowel (schwa)

Try spelling it

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