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I have the following two sentences:

  1. I have two pens, one red and one black.
  2. I have two pens, one is red and one is black.

I have some questions to ask:

  • Are both sentences above grammatically correct?
  • In sentence 1, is the omission of the to be is after the pronoun one some form of ellipsis?
  • In sentence 2, if placing a comma before "one" is correct, is there another way of writing using a period (.) before the pronoun "one"? Then the second sentence would be: I have two pens. One is red and one is black.
  • When we want to provide a list to clarify the object in the main clause, can we use something like "one red" as a noun phrase or "one is red" as a clause? Which usage is correct?
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    It's all fine. I would, though, do this for 2) I have two pens; one is red and one is black. But 1) is fine.
    – Lambie
    Commented May 31 at 15:59
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    Years ago, almost all writers would have used either a period or a semicolon after pens, but the trend is towards "lighter" (and less) punctuation marks these days, so your comma is fine.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented May 31 at 16:00
  • You could also use a dash. Note that it's also perfectly valid to introduce definite articles: I have two pens - the one [is] red, the other [one is] black. But only a very incompetent writer would include either of the (syntactically valid, but ugly) elements [in square brackets].
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented May 31 at 16:04
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    Really the omitted verb is simply the reference back to "have." In a way this sentence is a condensation of "I have two pens; I have one red pen and I have one black pen." Since the subject, verb, and object are the same in all clauses and all that changes is the adjectives, it can be compressed this way.
    – Andy Bonner
    Commented May 31 at 18:16

2 Answers 2

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Both sentences are fine.

I’d note that It’s not only (a pair of) is that is omitted here but (a pair of) that is. So a paraphrase of sentence 1 is I have two pens: a red one and a black one.

Yes, your sentence 2 could be split into separate sentences.

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Both are fine. "One red" and "one black" in sentence (1) may be called verbless clauses (see for example The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language p. 1268). Small clauses my also be used. They are interpreted as such: I have two pens, one (being) red and one (being) black. It's a two part sentence, so it definitely needs separating with punctuation.

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