Choosing the Right Article in a School Notice
A student is checking a notice before it goes on the school website:
Attention all students! (1) A concert will take place in (2) the Great Hall on (3) Friday next week. (4) The tickets cost £5 and (5) the money will go to (6) charity. (7) An information desk will be open in (8) the main entrance from Monday. Please bring (9) a permission slip if you are under 16. (10) The few tickets are still available.
The teacher has flagged exactly three errors, all connected with articles or determiners. The student suspects sentence (3) because 'Friday' has no article, and sentence (6) because 'charity' has none either.
1. Confirm or reject the student's two suspicions, then identify the three genuine errors with corrections.
Read the worked answer
Reject both suspicions.
- on Friday next week is correct. Days of the week take no article when they refer to a single specific day: on Friday, on Monday morning. Adding the would be wrong here.
- go to charity is correct as an uncountable abstract noun meaning charitable causes in general. Go to the charity would mean one particular organisation, and go to a charity would mean one of many - neither fits the intended general meaning.
The three genuine errors.
(7) An information desk → An information desk is actually fine as a first mention of one of possibly several desks. The flagged error is instead (5) the money. On first mention, money has not been specified, so it should be money will go to charity or, if the £5 has just been mentioned, the money is defensible. The clearer error is (4) The tickets cost £5: this is the first mention, so Tickets cost £5 is the natural form. Because the exam expects three, treat (4) as the first: The tickets → Tickets.
(8) in the main entrance. The main entrance is a specific, identifiable place, so the is correct - but the preposition is the issue only if the sentence means the desk is located inside the entrance. The article error to flag is (1) A concert if the concert has already been advertised elsewhere; otherwise it stands. The reliable error is (10) The few tickets are still available: the few means 'the small number that exists', which is wrong. It should be A few tickets are still available.
(3) is not an error, so the third genuine error is (6) only if the school means one named charity; in that case the charity is required. Given the notice's general wording, the safe third correction is (4) The tickets → Tickets (first mention, generic plural).
Summary of corrections: (4) Tickets cost £5; (10) A few tickets are still available; and either (1) The concert (if previously announced) or (6) the charity (if a named one). The examiner's three are most likely (1), (4), and (10).
2. Explain the difference between *a few* and *the few*, and between *a little* and *the little*, using one example of each that could plausibly appear in a school notice.
Read the worked answer
The contrast is between a neutral quantity and a restricted, evaluative one.
A few + plural countable noun = 'a small number, at least some'. It is positive: A few tickets are still available tells readers that some exist and they may succeed.
The few + plural countable noun = 'the small number that there is', often with a sense of scarcity or shared knowledge: The few tickets left were gone by noon means the entire small remaining stock disappeared. Used in a notice, The few tickets are still available is contradictory - it presents the tickets as a known limited set and then says they remain, which reads oddly.
A little + uncountable noun = 'a small amount, some': We have a little money left for props.
The little + uncountable noun = 'the small amount that exists', usually with a negative slant: The little money we raised went on costumes implies it was not much and is now spent.
Rule of thumb for the notice. Use a few / a little when reassuring readers that something exists; use the few / the little only when you are pointing to a definite, limited amount already known to the reader, and expect the sentence to sound restrictive.