If you'd feel comfortable lying down on it, it's a couch.
If it is fancy, wooden, the kind of thing your grandmother would keep covered in plastic unless a head-of-state was visiting, kids aren't allowed to sit on it ever, it's a sofa.
I think "sofa" is broader, but that the majority of sofas are couches. I'm not sure if I think couch is strictly a subset of sofa, but even if not, it mostly overlaps. Couch to me implies it's not one of the bigger or more strangely arranged sofas, just a traditional form and maybe smaller or medium sized.
I'm asking because I've recently begun to suspect that my usage of these words is classist. I've always thought I used them interchangeably, but in the past few years I've noticed that although there are exceptions*, I'm more likely to use "sofa" in a formal, affluent setting and "couch" in a more relaxed or run-down setting.
*Exceptions are according to what the piece of furniture is made of -- couches are softer, sofas are more structured.
Growing up, we had "couches", "sofas" and "davenports" mostly interchangeably. The latter was just used by my paternal grandmother, who was very amused when I got a job in The Davenport Building (25 First St., Cambridge) and yes, that is where the Davenport factory had been located. It was never clear why she used that term, I suspect she picked up from her parents.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2019-01-08 01:10 pm (UTC)If it is fancy, wooden, the kind of thing your grandmother would keep covered in plastic unless a head-of-state was visiting, kids aren't allowed to sit on it ever, it's a sofa.
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Date: 2019-01-08 03:52 pm (UTC)Sofa vs. couch
Date: 2019-01-09 03:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-01-09 01:44 pm (UTC)*Exceptions are according to what the piece of furniture is made of -- couches are softer, sofas are more structured.
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Date: 2019-01-09 08:06 pm (UTC)