a few summary

USAGE SUMMARY

The phrase "a few summary" is not correct in English.
Did you mean "a few summaries"? You can use "a few summaries" when referring to multiple brief accounts or overviews of different subjects or topics. Example: "I have prepared a few summaries of the articles we discussed in our last meeting."

⚠ May contain grammatical issues

Science

News & Media

Encyclopedias

Human-verified examples from authoritative sources

Exact Expressions

9 human-written examples

They certainly knew that there had been a few summary executions.

Independent

The Cheka had carried out not a few summary executions in the first half of 1918.

Encyclopedia Britannica

It might therefore have been wiser to produce a separate encyclopedia on eastern philosophy and to rely in the main work, as Mr Edwards did, on a few summary articles.This is a democratised encyclopedia.

The Economist

Section Concluding Remarks concludes with a few summary remarks on the diverse set of topics considered in this chapter, which represent issues that arise frequently in clinical research; further details can be found in the references.

Principles and Practice of Clinical Research

As a result, only a few summary values are disclosed.

Bioinformatics

At the same time, having a few summary or principal measures that are used consistently to assess different strategies greatly improves comparability.

Environmental Health Perspectives

Human-verified similar examples from authoritative sources

Similar Expressions

51 human-written examples

While students can expect to have to write a few summaries of cases, or produce a report to go along with their proposed business plan, large-scale term papers are much rarer than in graduate programmes in the humanities.

The Economist

23 Drowsiness is mentioned in a few summaries of product characteristics, but without any further reference to the frequency.

BMJ Open

In data stream framework, we note that (Q^{(N }-Q^{ N-1)}) is N }-Q^{ N-1ioN }-Q^{ N-1mmary statistics, which can be updated when a new data point is added to the cluster.

Journal of Big Data

In the report, entitled Working For The Few (summary here), Oxfam warned that the fight against poverty cannot be won until wealth inequality has been tackled.

The Guardian - Business

In this perspective, we can say that the main difference between CC and MI is whether the ISM incorporates (few) summary statistic values or all the statistical information in the form of a PDF.

EURASIP Journal on Image and Video Processing

Expert writing Tips

Best practice

Always ensure subject-verb agreement. With quantifiers like "a few", the noun should generally be plural: use "a few summaries" instead of "a few summary".

Common error

Avoid using a singular noun after "a few". Remember that "few" indicates more than one, so the following noun should be plural, such as in "a few summaries" instead of the ungrammatical "a few summary".

Linguistic Context

The phrase is intended to function as a quantifier plus a noun. However, "a few summary" is grammatically incorrect as it pairs a plural quantifier ("a few") with a singular noun ("summary"). Ludwig AI flags this as incorrect and recommends using the plural form "a few summaries" instead.

Expression frequency: Uncommon

Frequent in

Science

43%

News & Media

43%

Encyclopedias

14%

Less common in

Formal & Business

0%

Wiki

0%

Reference

0%

Ludwig's WRAP-UP

In summary, while the phrase "a few summary" appears in various sources, it is grammatically incorrect. As Ludwig AI indicates, the correct form is "a few summaries", using the plural noun to match the plural quantifier. The intended meaning is to indicate a small number of summaries. When writing or editing, ensure that the noun following "a few" is plural to maintain grammatical correctness. Consider alternatives like "a brief summary" or "several summaries" depending on the specific context and the number of summaries you are referring to.

More alternative expressions

Phrases that express similar concepts, ordered by semantic similarity:

a few summaries

Pluralizes "summary" to match "a few", making it grammatically correct.

a brief summary

Replaces "few" with "brief" and keeps singular "summary", emphasizing conciseness.

several summaries

Substitutes "a few" with "several", indicating more than just a couple of summaries.

some summaries

Uses "some" instead of "a few", offering a more general quantity.

a couple of summaries

Replaces "a few" with "a couple of", specifying two summaries.

a handful of summaries

Emphasizes a small but noticeable quantity of summaries.

summary snippets

Replaces "a few" with "summary", which can be useful in a sentence about generating summaries from text.

concise summaries

Highlights that the summaries are short and to the point.

abridged summaries

Indicates the summaries are shortened versions of longer texts.

essential summaries

Stresses that summaries included are important or key points.

FAQs

What is the correct way to say "a few summary"?

The grammatically correct way to phrase this is "a few summaries". The word "few" implies a plural noun.

Can I use "a few summary" in informal writing?

While you might encounter "a few summary" in some contexts, it's generally considered incorrect. Stick to "a few summaries" to maintain grammatical correctness even in informal writing.

What are some alternatives to "a few summaries"?

Depending on the context, you can use alternatives like "a brief summary" (if you only need one summary), "several summaries", or "some summaries".

What's the difference between "a few summary" and "a few summaries"?

"A few summary" is grammatically incorrect because it uses a singular noun with the plural quantifier "a few". The correct form is "a few summaries", which uses the plural noun "summaries".