1.157 other pronouns

The number 'one' is a special case. Like other cardinal numbers, it can be used to refer to one of a group of things.

'One' is also used to refer back to a noun group with the determiner 'a'.

• Could I have a bigger one, please?

It can also be used for emphasis after another determiner.

• There are systems of communication right through the animal world; each one is distinctive.

'One' can be used as a personal pronoun. This use is explained in paragraph 1.109.

1.158

Note that 'the one' and 'the ones' can be used to refer to a noun alone, rather than to the whole of the noun group. They are nearly always used with a modifier such as an adjective, or a qualifier such as a prepositional phrase.

• 'Which poem?' 'The one they were talking about yesterday.'
• ...the road comes up from the south and meets the one from Lairg.
• He gave the best seats to the ones who arrived first.

1.159

You use 'the other', 'the others', 'others', or 'another' to refer to different members of a group of things or people.

• Some writers are greater than others.
• He is deceived. The others cannot bear his burden for him.

1.160

If you want to say something about a member of a group of people or things you can use 'one'. You can then refer to the rest of the group as 'the others'.

• The bells are carefully installed so that disconnecting one will have no effect on the others.
• They had three little daughters, one a baby, the others twins of twelve.

You can use 'the one' and 'the other' to refer to each of a pair of things.

• The same factors push wages and prices up together, the one reinforcing the other.

If you do not wish to specify exactly which of a group you are talking about, you can refer to 'one or other' of them.

• It may be that one or other of them had fears for their health.