Fromenglish Grammar Today

One from English Grammar Today We commonly use one and its plural ones as a substitute for a countable noun: A: What about a cake? B: All right. Thank you. But I’m trying to slim, so I’ll just have a smallone. A: Can you fetch the DVDs from the shop? B: Which ones? A: The ones we ordered last week. The musicals. We don’t use one to refer back to uncountable nouns: A: Have you got any milk? B: Yes. A: Can I borrow some? Not: Can I borrow one? As a noun substitute, we don’t use ones immediately after some, any, both and numbers, unless it is premodified: A: Are there any mangoes for dessert today? B: Yes, Nuala bought some at the supermarket. Not: … bought some ones at … A: How many pens did you buy? B: I bought four green ones and six red ones. That should be OK, shouldn’t it? (The underlined words are premodifiers.) In informal English, my, his, her, etc. (possessive determiners) can come before one. This makes the statement more emphatic: 1 A: I couldn’t use my laptop today. B: Neither could I. My one got stolen. (more emphatic than Mine got stolen.) When one refers back to a previous noun and is premodified, a determiner (a/an, the, this, your) must be used: The hotel that we had booked turned out to be a luxury one. Not: The hotel that we had booked turned out to be luxury one. I liked all your songs, but Yesterday was your best one.

One and one’s from English Grammar Today As a personal pronoun (both subject and object), one can be used to refer to ‘people in general’. We often use one in making generalisations, especially in more formal styles. However, if one is used too much, it can make the speaker sound too formal. One takes a third person singular verb: One never knows, does one? One should not use mobile phones when driving. Holidays are supposed to allow one to forget about work. You and they are also used in a similar way. However, one and youinclude the speaker in the generalisation: [a durian is a kind of fruit] Does one eat durian in Malaysia? (includes the speaker, who is there or has an interest in going there; more formal) Do you eat durian in Malaysia? (less formal) Do they eat durian in Malaysia? (refers to others) One’s is a possessive determiner: One’s health is much more important than having lots of money.