Plurals

“The reason’s why are threefold:”

Apostrophes, Plurals, Possessives

I saw this at Freetricity.com.

Problem:
An apostrophe appears where it should not.

Explanation:
“The reason’s why are threefold:” — with an apostrophe between the noun “reason” and the letter “s” — appeared on a Freetricity.com Web page about the E2D Windmaster and the three reasons that less than 3% of U.S. homes have a renewable energy-source product.

An apostrophe has very limited use in the formation of a plural noun. Here are the situations:

  1. to form plurals of lower-case letters;
  2. to form groups of years;
  3. to form plurals of numbers;
  4. to form plurals of symbols;
  5. to form plurals of some short words.

However, most authorities recommend omission of the apostrophe for situations 2 through 4, given that there is no possibility of misreading when the apostrophe is omitted.

Given that the noun “reason” does not match any of these five situations, we have the solution.

Solution:
“The reasons why are threefold:”

“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 …”

“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 …”