I heard this from someone the other day.
Problem:
The word “ones” is unnecessary in this phrase.
Explanation:
The individual said a sentence such as “Those ones are bigger.”
The word “those” in the phrase “Those ones …” is acting as a determiner.
Other examples of “those” as a determiner include:
- “I like those chocolates.”
- “Do you want those tickets?”
- “He should give her those flowers.”
Also, it is possible to pluralize the singular numerical pronoun “one”, as in the following examples:
- “I like the vanilla ones.”
- “The ones in green are tickets for the front row.”
- “Are the pink flowers the ones that he wants?”
However, when the word “ones” is preceded by a plural determiner (such as “those”), it is best to drop the word “ones”, thereby converting the determiner “these” into a demonstrative pronoun, as shown in the following examples:
- “I like those.”
- “Do you want those?”
- “He should give her those.”
Solution:
“Those …”