a couple of times OR a couple times

[Lyndon Tidlos Gabato]

Hello,

Which these two is grammatically correct - "a couple of times" or "a couple times"?

I was researching topics for my training and I read a sample sentence. The sentence is, "I like to go on a walk a couple times a week."

I am confused because that is an article about grammar and I thought it should be "a couple of times."

Please help me clarify this.

Thank you.

[Joe Carillo]

The form "I like to go on a walk a couple of times a week" is the formal, grammatically correct form. The form that drops the prepositional "of" in "a couple of times, "I like to go on a walk a couple times a week" is the colloquial form used by native English speakers conversationally.