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

Question

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

(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

Bunuel · Accepted Answer

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

TarunKumar1234 · Answer

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.

siddhantmittal · Answer

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

Romil042 · Answer

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.

kntombat · Answer

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.

warrior1991 · 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

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

IMO E

carouselambra · Answer

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.

akadiyan · Answer

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

ranjan1 · Answer

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.

zhanbo · Answer

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!

ramlala · Answer

"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".

test9032 · Answer

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)

Vatsal7794 · Answer

Hi Experts

GMATNinja   KarishmaB   EducationAisle   ChrisLele   mikemcgarry   AjiteshArun   egmat   sayantanc2k   RonPurewal   DmitryFarber   MagooshExpert   avigutman   EMPOWERgmatVerbal   MartyTargetTestPrep   ExpertsGlobal5   IanStewart 
other experts  AnthonyRitz

Can anyone please clear the below doubt?

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

Which one is correct?

AnthonyRitz · Answer

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.

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

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

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

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