Meaning & use
low quality products
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Meanings
phraseplural
Things that are made or sold but are poorly made or not good enough.
Grammar: Used as a plural noun phrase; the singular is 'a low quality product'. It can follow 'of' or a verb like 'buy' or 'sell'.
Patterns
- buy low quality products
- sell low quality products
- low quality products from somewhere
The store was criticized for selling low quality products at high prices.
Consumers are increasingly careful to avoid low quality products that break easily.
The factory was shut down after inspectors found it was making low quality products.
phraseplural
Items that are considered inferior in standard or performance compared with similar ones.
Grammar: Often used after 'of' to talk about a specific group, as in 'a range of low quality products'. It can also be the subject of a sentence.
Patterns
- a range of low quality products
- low quality products on the market
- low quality products are
- low quality products that
The report said that low quality products were flooding the market.
Many low quality products are made with cheap materials that do not last.
She returned the low quality products and asked for a refund.
Common combinations
- low quality products at high prices
- Customers complained about low quality products at high prices.
- a flood of low quality products
- A flood of low quality products entered the country last year.
- avoid low quality products
- Smart shoppers avoid low quality products by reading reviews.
- low quality products from overseas
- The company stopped importing low quality products from overseas.
- low quality products that break easily
- He warned me about low quality products that break easily.
Synonyms and how they differ
- inferior goods
- More formal and often used in economics; it can also mean goods that people buy less of as their income rises, so it is not a perfect match.
- shoddy goods
- Stronger and more disapproving, suggesting careless workmanship; it is less neutral than 'low quality products'.
- cheap products
- Focuses on price rather than quality; something can be cheap but still well made, so this is not always the same.
Opposites
Word family
- low-quality adjective
- Used before a noun, as in 'low-quality materials'.
- quality noun
- The standard of something when compared with others.
- product noun
- A single thing that is made or grown, usually for sale.
Commonly confused: low quality products or low-quality?
low quality products vs low-quality
This is the adjective form, used before a noun: 'low-quality products'. The phrase 'low quality products' without a hyphen is also common, but some style guides prefer the hyphen when it comes before the noun.
Practice
Which sentence uses the phrase correctly?
Choose one answer.
Option B is correct because 'low-quality' is used as a compound adjective before the plural noun 'products', and the hyphen is standard in this position. Option An is also possible in informal writing, but B is the more careful choice tested here. Option C uses the singular 'product' with a plural meaning. Option D wrongly makes 'quality' plural.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “low quality products”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.