Do you say a couple is or are?

Answer 1

When used to refer to two people who function socially as a unit, as in 'a married couple', the word couple may take either a singular or a plural verb, depending on whether the members are considered individually or collectively; 'The couple were married last week', or, 'Only one couple was left on the dance floor'.

As a rule, when a pronoun follows, 'they' and 'their' are more common than 'it' and 'its': 'The couple decided to spend their' (less commonly 'its') 'vacation in Florida'. Using a singular verb and a plural pronoun, as in 'The couple wants their children to go to college', is widely considered to be incorrect.