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One

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 small one.
  • 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:

  • 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.
See also
  • One and one’s