These Ones

(Paraphrased listener question) When my son was in elementary school, I started hearing kids use the phrases “these ones” and “those ones,” and that doesn't sound right to me. It should be “that one” or “those over there,” not “those ones.” But I've also heard other people use the phrases “these ones” and "those ones.” Is that now acceptable English, or even used?

You aren’t the first person to complain about “these ones” and “those ones” sounding wrong, and I’m sure you won’t be the last. So you’re not alone, but there’s no real rule against using those phrases except that sometimes they’re redundant, and redundancy can bother people.

‘These Ones’: Emphasis

To start, the word "ones" can be plural, as in "I like the red ones." So the plurality isn’t a problem.

And to many people, it even sounds OK to say “these ones” when you modify the word “ones.” 

For example, imagine you’re with a friend in a flower shop, and there are lots of different kinds of roses. You could point to a bouquet you particularly like and say, "I like these red ones." Since you’re pointing, you could just say, “I like these,” but by saying “I like these red ones,” you could be implying that of all the red roses, these are your favorites, or you could just be emphasizing their redness (“I like these red ones”). 

Alternatively, if you’re not standing particularly close to the roses, and you point and simply say, “I like these,” your friend could misunderstand and think you mean all the roses in that section. 

In other words, saying “these red ones” instead of just “these” adds information for your friend.

‘These Ones’: Redundancy

“These ones” and “those ones” seem to bother people more when there isn’t a modifier like “red” in “these red ones.” When someone says, “I like these ones,” you could imagine “ones” standing in for “roses”: If someone says, “I like these roses,” nobody ever objects (unless maybe they want to get carnations instead), but if someone says, “I like these ones,” it can seem redundant and annoying, probably because the word “ones” isn’t adding information the way the word “roses” does. Most of the time, it feels like you get the same information with essentially the same emphasis from “I like these,” and “I like...

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