Learning Objective: At the end of the session, the students are expected to be able to differentiate other, others and another in sentences.



A question from Yenny.

I want to ask the difference between 'other', 'another' and 'the others' and how to use them.



Professor Michael Swan of bbc.com answers:



It’s an interesting question. They’re quite complicated, aren’t they?


Basically, there are two ways to use other and/ or another.


You can use it before a noun, like an adjective,

so you can say: "Another office",


or you can use it alone, just like a noun,

you can say “I’ll have another” and they work differently.


On Other/ Others

If it’s like an adjective before a noun then you don’t put 's' on the plural because adjectives don’t have 's' –

we say the other houses, not the others houses just like we say the big houses, not the bigs houses.

So the other houses, the other people, the other political parties.


But if it’s alone, like a noun, we do put 's' for the plural.


So we do say I’ll take this cake, and you can have all the others.

Or this car cost £8,000, and the others cost £10,000 upwards.

We often use the others to mean “ the other people” so I might say “If you tell Jane, I’ll tell the others” – means the other people.


On Another

There’s one odd thing about another. You can use it before a plural expression with a number.


So for instance I might say I’ll need another three days to finish the work.

Or she’s borrowed another £20.



So, back to other – no 's' in the plural if it’s an adjective, the other houses, 's' if it’s a plural noun, I’ll tell the others. OK?



Please get ready for an exercise!