> When writing of a couple getting married, it is more common to use the plural form ("the couple are to be wed"). When writing of an established couple, it is more common to use a singular verb ("the couple has six puppies, each more destructive than the next").
So according to MW we're a bit more right than NYT.
I'd expect the former in British English, because in that standard, grammatically singular nouns that refer to multiple people are conjugated in the plural. The latter would be typical for American English. It's a bit surprising to see the former used by an American author in an American publication, however.
Yep. And that Wikipedia article explains, collective nouns are normally taken to be singular in American English:
> In American English, collective nouns almost always take singular verb forms (formal agreement). In cases that a metonymic shift would be revealed nearby, the whole sentence should be recast to avoid the metonymy. (For example, "The team are fighting among themselves" may become "the team members are fighting among themselves" or simply "The team is infighting.") Collective proper nouns are usually taken as singular ("Apple is expected to release a new phone this year"), unless the plural is explicit in the proper noun itself, in which case it is taken as plural ("The Green Bay Packers are scheduled to play the Minnesota Vikings this weekend").
