In modern supermarkets, a customer does not have to stand in long bill

Official Explanation:

Answer: E

(A) The singular a customer does not agree with the plural pronoun they. Also, items are countable, so should be modified by fewer and not less.

(B) Items are countable, so should be modified by fewer and not less.

(C) Items are countable, so should be modified by fewer and not lesser.

(D) Items are countable, so should be modified by fewer and not less.

(E) The correct answer
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In modern supermarkets, a customer does not have to stand in long billing queues if they have purchased ten items or less as there is a separate, dedicated billing queue for such customers.


(A) a customer does not have to stand in long billing queues if they have purchased ten items or less -> "a customer" is singular, but "they have" is plural. Another issue, "less" is used for uncountable nouns. Incorrect.

(B) customers do not have to stand in long billing queues if they have purchased ten items or less -> "less" is used for uncountable nouns. Incorrect.

(C) a customer does not have to stand in long billing queues if purchasing ten items or lesser -> "Purchasing" incorrect use of progressive tense. Incorrect.

(D) long queues can be avoided by customers who purchase ten or less items -> "Can be" and "less" (used of uncountable nouns) and we have subject, customers, not long queues. Incorrect.

(E) customers do not have to stand in long billing queues if they have purchased up to ten items -> This is better.

So, I think E.

In modern supermarkets, a customer does not have to stand in long billing queues if they have purchased ten items or less as there is a separate, dedicated billing queue for such customers.


(A) a customer does not have to stand in long billing queues if they have purchased ten items or less-- customer and they dont match (customer is singular)

(B) customers do not have to stand in long billing queues if they have purchased ten items or less Concept of few and less: Less is used for uncountable nouns (eg: I have less money) whereas Few is used for countable nouns (eg: I have a few friends)-- so since you can count the items, hence less is incorrect

(C) a customer does not have to stand in long billing queues if purchasing ten items or lesser same as B

(D) long queues can be avoided by customers who purchase ten or less items--firstly, the subject changes here. If we look at the non-underlined portion of the sentence, we'll realise that the subject of the sentence is customers and not queues. Additionally, it repeats the error of using "lesser"

(E) customers do not have to stand in long billing queues if they have purchased up to ten items--Correct

the cache is few/fewer vs less/lesser.
For GMAT the difference is pretty straightforward.
Few/fewer/etc is used for countable
Less/lesser/etc for non countable. Here in the problem, the number of items is a countable entity. hence A, B,C,D is out. In E few/fewer is not added but at least the mistake is removed.

I chose E as the answer, I frankly have no idea whether I am right or not but I do remember reading in the Manhattan Prep guides that the idiom "ten items or less" is wrong as less is used for uncountable items whereas we can count whether items in that case are ten or less than ten, as none of the options other than E have used "few/fewer", I eliminated all of them, leaving me with E as the answer.

A customer is singular so requires a singular verb. Use of they to denote singular customer is incorrect.


Ten items is a countable noun. We should not use less but use fewer for countable nouns. Eliminate


Ten items is a countable noun. We should not use less but use fewer for countable nouns. Eliminate


Ten items is a countable noun. We should not use less but use fewer for countable nouns. Eliminate


Upto ten items is correct. All other options use less which is wrong.

IMO E
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IMO E

In modern supermarkets, a customer does not have to stand in long billing queues if they have purchased ten items or less as there is a separate, dedicated billing queue for such customers.

(A) a customer does not have to stand in long billing queues if they have purchased ten items or less

(B) customers do not have to stand in long billing queues if they have purchased ten items or less

(C) a customer does not have to stand in long billing queues if purchasing ten items or lesser <than what?>

(D) long queues can be avoided by customers who purchase ten or less items

(E) customers do not have to stand in long billing queues if they have purchased up to ten items
Crisp and error free.

Ans E

(A) a customer does not have to stand in long billing queues if they have purchased ten items or less - INCORRECT
customer is singular, so usage of 'they' is incorrect

(B) customers do not have to stand in long billing queues if they have purchased ten items or less - INCORRECT
Plural customers use plural 'they' correctly, but 'less' at the end of the statement is wrong, we need 'fewer' for countable nouns.

(C) a customer does not have to stand in long billing queues if purchasing ten items or lesser - INCORRECT
Same as B

(D) long queues can be avoided by customers who purchase ten or less items - INCORRECT
The subject is the customers , so that should be the first underlined word

(E) customers do not have to stand in long billing queues if they have purchased up to ten items - CORRECT
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In modern supermarkets, a customer does not have to stand in long billing queues if they have purchased ten items or less as there is a separate, dedicated billing queue for such customers.

Error analysis:- Original sentence has 2 errors. 1.) Pronoun error. ""They" is wrong pronoun for "a customer"". 2.) "less " can't be used for countable nouns.

(A) a customer does not have to stand in long billing queues if they have purchased ten items or less
Incorrect. As mentioned above.

(B) customers do not have to stand in long billing queues if they have purchased ten items or less
Incorrect. Usage of less is wrong.

(C) a customer does not have to stand in long billing queues if purchasing ten items or lesser
Incorrect. Usage of lesser is wrong.

(D) long queues can be avoided by customers who purchase ten or less items
Incorrect. Usage of less is wrong.

(E) customers do not have to stand in long billing queues if they have purchased up to ten items
Correct.

Bunuel, in posting OA, please also comment on the appropriate use of present perfect tense ("if they have purchased") in option (A), (B) and (E).
Does it have anything to do with "if"?

Thanks!

"items" are countable. use of "less" is inappropriate. Eliminate A, B, C & D
"such customers" in non-underlined portion hints to select plural noun. Eliminate A & C
In Option D, I feel that sentence is wrongly structured using passive voice. Customers shall be main subject. In GMAT, we generally prefer active voice.
"Option E" conveyes the clear meaning, replacing "less" with "up to".
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I'm no expert but here is my analysis -


After reading the original sentence, 2 things stuck out to me -

i) Use of "them"
ii) Use of "less"

i) Use of "them" -

"them" has no clear antecedent.

Good enough reason to eliminate Option (A)

ii) Use of "less" -

Something I personally struggle to identify but "less" is used for uncountable nouns while "few" is used for countable.

Clearly, "items" are countable so we would use "few" not "less".

Another solid reason to eliminate Option (A)

We can safely eliminate Option (A).

Quickly glancing through all the other options,

We can eliminate Option (B), (C) and (D) on similar elimination of "less" vs "few"

Answer is Option (E)

Hi Experts

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other experts AnthonyRitz

Can anyone please clear the below doubt?

"ten or fewer items"
"Ten items or fewer"

Which one is correct?

This is not a GMAT issue. My advice is to stop focusing on idioms and style. Also, stop doing Aristotle SC questions -- these seem on the whole to be terrible and unrepresentative of the real GMAT.
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Hello Vatsal7794,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, both phrases are acceptable; "Ten items or fewer" is just a bit more direct.

The difference between these two is a minor style issue that is very unlikely to matter anywhere on the GMAT.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team
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