Presenting People, Products and Data with Clear Noun Phrases.

Here you focus on articles, quantifiers and noun phrases to make your descriptions precise and professional. You read a short company profile and look at a slide from a presentation with people, products and simple data. You notice how a, an, the and zero article are used, and how determiners and quantifiers such as this, those, some, many and little shape meaning. We also build longer noun phrases that are common in reports and presentations, for example a new online booking system or several important customer complaints. Through guided tasks you practise correcting typical article mistakes and choosing clear reference words so the reader always knows who or what you mean. You finish by preparing a mini presentation or written profile introducing a person, a product and one small piece of data. This lesson gives you practical control of articles and noun phrases in real communication.

1. Getting to know the company profile.

In this first step, I would like you to imagine a very practical situation. You have just joined a small tech company, and your manager asks you to prepare a short introduction to the company for a new client. Before you start writing anything, you read an existing company profile and you listen carefully to how it sounds. In a moment, you will see a short profile for a fictional company called BrightStay. While you read it on the screen, I want you to pay attention, not only to the meaning, but also to how each person, product and number is described. You will see that the important information is usually packed inside noun phrases, for example a small technology company or most of our customers. After that, you will do a quick listening activity where you hear a very similar profile. Your job will be to pick out at least one noun phrase for a person, one for a product or service, and one for a number or piece of data. Do not worry about being perfect yet. This first block is about getting comfortable with the situation and starting to notice how articles, quantifiers and nouns work together in real company language.

Step 1: Meet BrightStay.

Imagine you work for BrightStay, a young company in the travel technology sector. Your manager has written a short profile for potential partners.

Read this company profile:

> BrightStay is a small technology company based in Manchester. We offer an online booking platform for independent hotels and guest houses. Our team includes ten full-time developers and a small customer support team who help hotel owners every day.

>

> At the moment we work with over 150 properties in the UK and Ireland, and most of our customers are family-owned hotels. The main product we offer is a simple, mobile-friendly booking system that hotel staff can learn in less than an hour. In this report you can see a small increase in bookings for our clients over the last six months.

In this short text you can already see our grammar focus for this lesson:

• Articles: a small technology company, an online booking platform, the main product
• Quantifiers and determiners: most of our customers, over 150 properties, a small increase
• Longer noun phrases that pack information together: a simple, mobile-friendly booking system, a small customer support team who help hotel owners every day

Why this matters.

When you present people, products and data in emails, reports or presentations, you rarely speak in single words. Instead, you use noun phrases that combine articles, quantifiers, adjectives and nouns so the other person immediately understands who or what you mean.

In this lesson, we will stay inside the BrightStay world. You will gradually learn to choose between a, an, the and no article, use quantifiers such as most, several and a small number of, and build more professional noun phrases for your own work or study.

In the activity below you will listen to a spoken version of this profile. Your task is to catch some of these noun phrases and show that you understand what they refer to.

Practice & Feedback

Listen to the short BrightStay company profile. While you listen, note down three noun phrases:

1. One noun phrase that describes a person or group of people in the company.
2. One noun phrase that describes a product or service.
3. One noun phrase that mentions a number or piece of data.

After the audio finishes, type your answers in one short paragraph. For each noun phrase, copy it exactly as you hear it and then briefly explain in your own words what it refers to. For example: "a small customer support team" – this is the group that helps hotel owners.

Write 3–6 sentences in total. Do not worry if your punctuation is not perfect yet; the goal here is to show that you understand the profile and can recognise these information-rich noun phrases.

2. Choosing a, an, the and no article.

Now that you have met BrightStay, let us zoom in on the small words that cause big problems for many learners: a, an, the, and sometimes no article at all. In the company profile you saw phrases like a small technology company, an online booking platform and the main product. These are not random choices. They tell the reader whether something is new information, any example of a thing, or a specific item that both speaker and listener know about. In this block, you will look again at sentences from the BrightStay profile, with the articles highlighted. I will guide you through the typical patterns we use when describing people, products and data in professional English. We will also look at some very common mistakes, such as forgetting the article before job titles, or using the when you really mean something more general. After that, you will read a short, slightly incorrect profile of a different company. Your task is to rewrite it, fixing the noun phrases so that the articles sound natural. Focus on the parts that feel wrong to you, especially around a, an, the and no article. Remember, our aim is not to memorise a long list of rules, but to notice patterns in real examples and then copy those patterns in your own writing.

Step 2: Noticing articles in company language.

Look again at some key sentences from the BrightStay profile, this time with articles in bold:

• BrightStay is a small technology company based in Manchester.
• We offer an online booking platform for independent hotels and guest houses.
• The main product we offer is a simple, mobile-friendly booking system.
• In this report you can see a small increase in bookings.

Notice these patterns:

• We use a / an when we mention something for the first time, or when we talk about one example of a group:
• a small technology company
• an online booking platform
• We use the when we talk about something specific that we expect the listener to identify:
• the main product (there is only one main product)
• the last six months (we know exactly which six months)
• We sometimes use no article with plural or uncountable nouns when we speak in general:
• most of our customers are family-owned hotels
• we work with over 150 properties

Typical problems.

Learners often:

• Forget the article before a singular job or role:
• ✗ She is project manager.
• ✓ She is a project manager.
• Use the when talking about things in general:
• ✗ The technology is changing fast. (only if we mean specific technology)
• ✓ Technology is changing fast.
• Miss the when both people know which one:
• ✗ Main product we offer is a simple system.
• ✓ The main product we offer is a simple system.

Mini-check.

When you write about a person, product or number, ask:

1. Is this the first time I mention it, or just one of many? → probably a / an.
2. Is it clear which one I mean, or is there only one? → probably the.
3. Am I talking about something in general, not a specific example? → maybe no article.

In the activity below you will correct a short profile by improving the articles inside the noun phrases.

Practice & Feedback

Read the short profile of another fictional company, GreenWheel, in the box below. It contains several unnatural or missing articles in the noun phrases.

Your task is to rewrite the whole paragraph, correcting the use of a, an, the and zero article so that it sounds natural, in a similar style to the BrightStay text above. Pay special attention to:

• company type or size (for example, a medium-sized company),
• products or services (for example, the main service we offer),
• job roles and teams (for example, a small sales team),
• numbers or data (for example, a slight increase in sales).

Write your corrected version under the text. You do not need to change the ideas, only the grammar. Aim for 6–10 sentences. After you finish, check quickly: do your singular countable nouns usually have an article, and do you only use the when it is clear which thing you mean?

3. Using quantifiers in a slide explanation.

Articles are only part of the story. When you present data or describe your customers, you also need quantifiers and other determiners such as some, many, most, several, a few, a little, this and these. These small words tell your listener about quantity and how general or specific your statement is. In this block, I want you to imagine you are preparing a slide for a short internal meeting at BrightStay. The slide shows some key numbers: how many properties use the platform, what percentage are family-owned, and how customer satisfaction has changed. On the screen you will see a simple version of that slide, with a few example sentences you could say. Then, in the activity, you will hear a manager describe the slide. Your job is to listen and then explain the same information to a colleague in a chat-style message, using clear quantifiers and determiners. Think of natural phrases like most of our new clients, a small number of complaints, several important partners or this year’s results. This will help your language sound more precise and more professional when you talk about data in meetings or in reports.

Step 3: Quantifiers and determiners for people and data.

Here is a very simple version of a BrightStay slide for an internal meeting:

Slide: BrightStay client overview

• 150 properties use our platform.
• 70% are family-owned hotels.
• Customer satisfaction: 4.6 / 5.
• Complaints per month down from 20 to 8.

Now look at how we can talk about this slide using quantifiers and determiners:

• Most of our properties are family-owned hotels.
• We now work with around 150 properties in total.
• Our customers are very satisfied, with an average rating of 4.6 out of 5.
• There has been a big drop in complaints, from 20 per month to just 8.

Other useful patterns:

• Many of our customers book directly through the app.
• Several important hotel chains are interested in the platform.
• A few customers still prefer to call us.
• We have very little negative feedback about the new design.

Notice how these quantifiers change the feeling:

• most, many, several, a few are used with countable plural nouns (customers, hotels, properties).
• much, little, a lot of are often used with uncountable nouns (feedback, information, money).
• Words like this, that, these, those help you point to specific things, often on a slide: In this chart you can see, These results show that.

In a real meeting, you might not read the exact numbers. Instead, you use quantifiers to summarise them clearly.

In the next activity, you will listen to your manager explain this slide and then practise writing short chat messages to a colleague using similar language.

Practice & Feedback

First, listen carefully to your manager describing the BrightStay client overview slide. Do not write while you listen the first time; just follow the general meaning.

Then, imagine your colleague could not attend the meeting and messages you on Teams or Slack asking, "What did they say about our clients?" Your task is to write 3–5 short chat-style messages replying to your colleague.

In your messages:

• Summarise the most important information from the audio (who the clients are, how many, how satisfied, what is happening with complaints).
• Use at least three different quantifiers or determiners, for example: most, several, a few, a lot of, this year, these results.
• Write naturally, as if you are really chatting at work, but keep your grammar clear.

You can write each message on a new line, starting with something like "You:" if you wish. Aim for 60–100 words in total.

4. Building longer professional noun phrases.

You have now worked with articles and quantifiers inside real company language. In this block, we are going to take the next step and build longer, more professional noun phrases. These are very common in presentations, reports and CVs. Instead of saying, for example, we have a system and the system is online and it is new, you can combine this information into a single clear phrase such as a new online booking system. This makes your language more compact and easier to follow, especially on slides where space is limited. On the screen you will see the basic structure of a noun phrase and several examples connected to our BrightStay story: phrases for people, products and data. Notice the usual order: determiner, then adjectives, then the main noun, and after that extra information such as for hotel owners or in the UK and Ireland. In the activity, you will use a small set of prompts to create your own long noun phrases for an imaginary company. Focus on getting the order right and choosing suitable articles and quantifiers. This will really help when you write profiles, describe your role in a CV or explain key numbers in a meeting.

Step 4: The structure of a long noun phrase.

A useful pattern to remember is:

> [determiner / quantifier] + [adjective(s)] + [main noun] + [extra information]

Here are some examples from our BrightStay context:

• a simple, mobile-friendly booking system for small hotels
• the main product in our current portfolio
• several important family-owned hotels in the UK and Ireland
• a small, highly motivated customer support team in Manchester
• a slight increase in online bookings over the last six months

Break down one example:

> a simple, mobile-friendly booking system for small hotels

• a → article, introduces the thing for the first time
• simple, mobile-friendly → adjectives describing the system
• booking system → main noun
• for small hotels → extra information (a prepositional phrase)

Another example:

> most of our new European clients in the hotel sector

• most of our → quantifier and determiner
• new European → adjectives
• clients → main noun
• in the hotel sector → extra information

Why this helps your grammar and style.

Using longer, well-formed noun phrases allows you to:

• sound more precise: a data-driven marketing report for senior managers;
• avoid repetition: you do not need three sentences to say the same thing;
• write cleaner slides and headings.

The key is to keep the normal English order: determiners and quantifiers first, then adjectives, then the main noun, then any extra information.

In the activity, you will see prompts that give you the basic idea, for example: product + new + online + small businesses. Your job is to turn each prompt into a natural, professional-sounding noun phrase.

Practice & Feedback

Look at the idea prompts in the box. Each line gives you the ingredients for a long noun phrase connected to a tech or services company, similar to BrightStay.

Your task is to choose at least four prompts and turn each one into a clear, natural noun phrase. Pay attention to:

• the article or quantifier you choose (a, an, the, this, several, most of our, etc.),
• the order of adjectives (usually opinion or size before purpose or type),
• any extra information you can add with a preposition phrase, such as for new users or in our London office.

Write your noun phrases as a simple list. For example: "a new online booking platform for small hotels".

Try to imagine you are writing for a slide or company website, so keep each phrase compact but informative.

5. Keeping reference clear with pronouns and noun phrases.

You can now build quite impressive noun phrases, but there is another step to sounding clear and professional: using pronouns and repeated noun phrases so that your reader always knows who or what you mean. In real company documents, one very common problem is unclear reference. Writers use words like it, they, this and that, but the reader is not sure which product, which team or which number is being discussed. In our BrightStay story, imagine that your manager has written a quick draft about an update to the booking system. The ideas are good, but some sentences are confusing because the reference is not clear. On the screen you will first see a messy version of this paragraph, and then a cleaner, edited version. I will draw your attention to where we repeat a full noun phrase, and where a pronoun is perfectly clear. In the activity, you will practise rewriting the messy version yourself, before comparing your choices with a model. Focus on using full, clear noun phrases when you introduce something or when there might be confusion, and shorter pronouns like it or they only when the reference is completely obvious.

Step 5: Avoiding confusing **it**, **they** and **this**.

Look at this messy paragraph about a new BrightStay feature:

> We have updated the system and it is now faster. This is very popular with them. It has also reduced these because they do not have to call us so often. This shows that it is working.

What is it? Who are they? What are these? As a reader, you have to guess.

Now read a clearer version of the same information:

> We have updated the BrightStay booking system, and it is now faster. The new version is very popular with our hotel clients. It has also reduced the number of support calls, because hotel staff do not have to call us so often. These results show that the new system is working.

Notice what changed:

• The first time we mention something important, we use a full noun phrase:
• the BrightStay booking system
• our hotel clients
• the number of support calls
• the new system
• After that, we can often use a pronoun when it is clear what we mean:
• the BrightStay booking system → it
• our hotel clients → they
• these results → the numbers and feedback we just mentioned

Tips for clear reference.

1. When you introduce a new person, product or number, use a complete noun phrase, not just it or this.
2. Use pronouns when:

• the reference is obvious from the previous sentence; and
• there is only one possible thing it could be.

If you write this or it and you are not sure your reader will understand, repeat or extend the noun phrase:

• ✗ This is a problem.
• ✓ This increase in customer complaints is a problem.

In the activity, you will improve a messy paragraph by choosing when to repeat a noun phrase and when to use a pronoun.

Practice & Feedback

Read the messy draft below about another BrightStay change. As in the example above, the reference is unclear: it, they and this are confusing.

Your job is to rewrite the whole paragraph so that the reference is always clear. Use a mix of:

• full noun phrases when you introduce something important (for example, the new support chatbot for hotel guests), and
• pronouns such as it, they, this, these when the meaning is obvious.

You do not need to keep exactly the same sentences, but try to keep the same ideas. Aim for 4–6 clear sentences.

When you finish, quickly check:

• Is every it, they, this, these clearly connected to one specific noun phrase?
• Have you repeated key noun phrases where necessary, especially for products, clients and numbers?

6. Writing a mini profile of person, product and data.

You have reached the final step of this lesson, so it is time to put everything together in a short but realistic task. Imagine that next week you will join a video call with a potential partner for BrightStay. At the start of the call, your manager asks you to introduce one key person from your team, your main product, and one small but positive piece of data. You want to sound confident and professional, and you also want your grammar to support your message. In this block, you will prepare a short written script or profile that you could read or adapt during that call. On the screen you will see a model mini profile that does exactly this for BrightStay. Notice how it uses articles, quantifiers, longer noun phrases and clear reference with pronouns. There is also a simple checklist you can use to edit your own writing. In the activity, you will write your own 120 to 150 word profile. You can stay with the BrightStay story, or you can adapt it to your real company, university project or a completely imagined organisation. The important thing is to present one person, one product or service, and one small piece of data using clear, accurate noun phrases. After you write, you will receive feedback on both your grammar and how convincing your profile sounds.

Step 6: A complete mini profile.

Here is a model mini profile for BrightStay:

> Today I would like to introduce one key person, our main product and a small but important result.

>

> First, the person responsible for our product roadmap is Sarah Green, our Head of Product. She leads a small, highly experienced team of software engineers in our Manchester office.

>

> Our main product is a simple, mobile-friendly booking system for small, independent hotels. It helps hotel staff manage reservations, payments and guest messages in one place.

>

> Finally, I would like to mention one important figure. Over the last six months we have seen a ten per cent increase in direct bookings for our clients. These results show that the new system is working well for many hotels.

In this short text, notice:

• Articles: the person responsible, our main product, a small but important result.
• Quantifiers and determiners: one key person, a small, highly experienced team, many hotels.
• Longer noun phrases: a simple, mobile-friendly booking system for small, independent hotels.
• Clear reference: it clearly refers to the booking system; these results clearly refers to the ten per cent increase in direct bookings.

Your task.

You will now write a similar mini profile. You can:

• keep the BrightStay context and invent your own person, product and data; or
• write about your real organisation, project or course, using the same structure.

Try to follow this rough plan:

1. Opening sentence: say that you will introduce a person, a product and one figure.
2. Person: who they are, their role, and one or two key details.
3. Product or service: name it and describe it with a longer noun phrase.
4. Data: give one small but positive figure and say what it shows.

Use the checklist below while you write.

Mini checklist.

• Do my main noun phrases have appropriate articles or quantifiers?
• Have I built at least one longer noun phrase for a person and one for a product?
• Are my pronouns always clear, with no confusing it or this?
• Does my profile read smoothly as a short introduction?

Practice & Feedback

Write your own mini profile introducing one key person, one main product or service and one small piece of data.

Follow these steps:

1. Write an opening sentence explaining what you will talk about, similar to the model.
2. In 2–3 sentences, introduce the person. Use at least one longer noun phrase with an article or quantifier, for example: "the person responsible for customer support is" or "a senior lecturer in the Business Department".
3. In 2–3 sentences, present the product or service, again using a clear, detailed noun phrase.
4. In 1–2 sentences, share one number or fact and explain what it shows, using quantifiers where possible: most, a large number of, a slight increase in, etc.

Aim for 120–150 words. After writing, quickly edit using the checklist above: look at your articles, quantifiers, long noun phrases and pronouns. Then submit your mini profile for feedback.