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 …”