Month: September 2008

“Those ones …”

Common English Blunders, Plurals, Pronouns

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 …”

“… no more frequent then usual.”

Adjectives, Adverbs, Common English Blunders, Mispronunciations, Nouns, Prepositions

I heard this recently during a radio broadcast.

Problem:
The word “then” is not a preposition.

Explanation:
The radio broadcaster said a sentence such as “The telephone calls to the radio station during this hour were no more frequent then usual.”

The problem with this sentence is that the word “then” — spelled T-H-E-N — is not a preposition.

Instead, this word is any of the following:

  • adverb, as in “Prices were higher then.”, where “then” means “at that time” in this sentence;
  • adjective, as in “The then president of the club was a nice guy.”, where “then” means “existing” in this sentence;
  • noun, as in “We have not seen a show at the Alley Theatre since then.”, where “then” means “that time” in this sentence.

What the phrase “no more frequent then usual” requires is a preposition, given that the speaker is comparing “more frequent” with “usual”.

The required preposition is “than” — spelled T-H-A-N, not T-H-E-N.

I believe that the common English blunder of using “then” where the preposition “than” is required is due in part to mispronunciation of the preposition “than”, but simple ignorance about these two words certainly could play a part, too.

Solution:
“… no more frequent than usual.”

“These ones …”

Common English Blunders, Plurals, Pronouns

I heard this from a small boy the other day.

Problem:
The word “ones” is unnecessary in this phrase.

Explanation:
The boy said a sentence such as “These ones are bigger.”

The word “these” in the phrase “These ones …” is acting as a determiner.

Other examples of “these” as a determiner include:

  • “I like these chocolates.”
  • “Do you want these tickets?”
  • “He should give her these 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 “these”), 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 these.”
  • “Do you want these?”
  • “He should give her these.”

Solution:
“These …”