possibility

When suggesting possibility, perhaps in the form of options for an event or festival, describing options for tourists or hotel guests in advertising literature, or when listing or detailing possible courses of action in a business proposition etc, the actual noun possibility is a common element. In our translations into English though, we sometimes see things like:

1) There is also a possibility of having cake with your coffee.
2) Thanks to a possibility of receiving the funds in stages, we can proceed earlier than expected.
3) With the 20m² stage setup, there is also a possibility of additional lighting rigs at no extra cost.

So, what’s the problem here? It’s the choice of article – in these cases a. Compare these two sentences, and look what happens when we use the instead:

4a) We have a possibility of using the Chopin Room for our next seminar.

4b) We have the possibility of using the Chopin Room for our next seminar.

OED definition:
(n, singular) 1- a thing that may happen or be the case.
(mass noun) 1- the state or fact of being possible; likelihood. 2- thing that may exist or happen.

What happens is that out choice of article changes the implied degree of certainty of that possible option or choice. The article changes the implication. Thus, (4a) implies that maybe, we might be able to use the Chopin Room; while (4b) implies that yes, we can use that room, if we want to.

Do you see the difference there? With the indefinite article we’re saying ‘there might be possibilities’. With the definite article, we’re saying ‘there are possibilities.’ So in the contexts we described in the first paragraph, you’ll want to be using the definite article.