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Which one if these is more appropriate?

  1. We shall decide it together as soon as we know all the ones willing to go.
  2. We shall decide it together as soon as we know all the ones who are willing to go?

I have three concerns over here.

  1. Is the use of 'ones' correct?
  2. Is 'who are' in the 2nd sentence redundant?
  3. Earlier I used slickwrite.com to proof read my sentence when it showed the use of adverb 'soon' as an error. Is it really an error?
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    Note: Using "it" is fine, but may not be necessary. We shall decide together as soon as we know all the ones willing to go is perfectly idiomatic, and depending on context, may be more natural.
    – Adam
    Commented Feb 3, 2015 at 17:06
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    Unless this is purely an academic exercise I would consider revising your sentence. E.g. "As soon as we know who is willing to go, we will make the decision together"
    – user19427
    Commented May 4, 2015 at 20:43

2 Answers 2

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Any of these would be idiomatic:

We shall decide it together as soon as we know those willing to go.
We shall decide it together as soon as we know all those who are willing to go.
We shall decide it together as soon as we know all of those who are willing to go.
We shall decide it together as soon as we know all who are willing to go.
We shall decide it together as soon as we know those who are willing to go.

P.S. For "all the ones who" see this ngram:

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  • So my sentences are incorrect?
    – Four Seasons
    Commented Jan 4, 2015 at 13:14
  • "all the ones" and "all the ones who" strike my AmE ear as unidiomatic (see the ngram referenced in the postscript).
    – TimR
    Commented Jan 4, 2015 at 13:24
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Both your sentences are correct. And yes, "who are" in the second sentence is redundant, but correct and often used in English.

However, both of your sentences are wordy and can be expressed more concisely.

I would say:

We shall decide it together as soon as we know who's willing to go.

Or to emphasize the importance of all those willing to go:

We shall decide it together as soon as we know everyone who's willing to go.

You might even replace "together" with a shorter word.

If two people are deciding:

We shall both decide it...

[or]

We both shall decide it...

If more than two people are deciding:

We shall all decide it...

[or]

We all shall decide it...

Also, "as soon as" is perfectly correct. The website was wrong. Computers are still bad at understanding the nuances of natural language, despite recent advances.

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