27 SEPTEMBER 1986, Page 22

The right article

Sir: The letters of Kingsley Amis and James Michie (6 and 13 September) re- mind me that I once tried in vain to defend `a les' to my French master on the grounds that `les' was the first word of the name of an inn. He saw my point, but a Frenchman would have written 'aux'. Would he also, I wondered, have said 'The Three Fisher- men are a very good inn'?

Today's schoolboy would not offer such arguments. If challenged about something he has written he is likely to reply, 'It sounds right.' Grammatical sense suggests that a title or name ought to be treated as an unalterable block of words and singular in number. Sense may, however, have to yield to what 'sounds right'.

Keith Norman

Dumpton School, Gaunt's House Wimborne, Dorset