Actually, in that context 'those' and "they're" are correct, as Eelementry was pointing out the three dots. And in case you didn't know three dots is more than the singular of one dot, judging by the maths ability you've displayed so far I doubt you did know that.
No, its a little more advanced than that. You would be correct for a junior school test, but you're failing high school writing like that.
Three dots are called three dots unless the three dots form something else, such as a sign like an ellipsis, or perhaps even a therefore sign, and when the ellipsis or the therefore sign is the antecedent subject of the sentence, a singular pronoun should be used unless the three dots are behaving as individuals.
For example:
Question:
"What
are those three dots called?"
Reply:
"
Its called an ellipsis when three period symbols are used next to each other in one line like that so as to form a new and singular grammatical sign".
The phrase "
they're (plural subject) called an ellipsis (singular antecedent subject noun)" can never be good English, unless the the antecedent subject noun contains a collective noun, like family or team, in which those that make up the collective act independently of each other. This is the difference between introducing an ellipsis in intermediate school and then engaging with collective nouns in antecedent subject clauses in high school. Got it?
You have effectively argued an ellipsis is a collective noun of three dots and is such a plural, but you still need to demonstrate how those these dots can do anything independent of each other. But they cannot in the context given. The three dots, where
its existence when being referred to as forming an ellipsis sign, are very much acting together so as to form one sign. If two of the ellipsis dots depart and leave the third behind, that remaining dot is no longer an ellipsis member, but a period.
So you and everyone else who thinks that the identification and introduction of an ellipsis, is a clause that requires a plural for the three dots is wrong and perhaps deliberately writing at a lower incorrect level for a different concept to be grasped, because the three dots when formed as an ellipsis, do not act independently of each other. It is the epitome of uniformly acting together.
http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-select-pronouns-for-collective-nouns.html
http://www.chompchomp.com/rules/proagreerules.htm
For instance:
"The entire family agreed unanimously and is sending
its spokesman."
If you want to descend to Alice in Wonderland proportions so as to use a plural pronoun for ellipsis dots, the following is an example:
"The sole remaining former ellipsis dot is not happy that the other two dots left
it (the sole remaining dot from the former ellipsis) behind, period, so
they're (the two dots acting independently of the third by leaving and disbanding the ellipsis) not in his good books.
He was explaining to you what those three dots meant, and don't even try to say you already knew what they were, otherwise you wouldn't have falsely corrected his original post.
Wrong and illogical.
