GIVE ANSWERS - English

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hi when we use other and when we use another

GIVE ANSWERS

HyaSky profile picture HyaSkyOctober 2019
Just think of "another" as "an other."
Another reason to go to school/An other reason to go to school...
I want another coffee!/I want an other coffee!

You should only write "another," but you can think of "an other" to make it easier.

Basically, 'another' is just 'other' with an indefinite article (a/an) in front of it.

If you said "I want the other coffee!" that means there is a specific coffee you want. You don't just want AN other coffee: You want THE other coffee.
"I want to go to another school!" - It can be any school.
"I want to go to the other school!" - It is a specific school.

"Would you like another coffee?" - If a server asks you this, they want to know if you want MORE of the SAME coffee.

Now imagine there are only two types of coffee: Coffee A and B. They are both on the table. You drink some of Coffee A. When you finish, the person next to you asks, "Would you like the other coffee?" - this means they are asking if you want Coffee B, because you already drank A, so it's not "the other."


exRanger profile picture exRangerOctober 2019
But wait -- there's more:

- "another" implies something else that is indefinite;
- "other", usually preceded by the definite article "the", often implies something else that is "definite", i.e., a known entity or other sundry phenomenon.

* note that in the case of the word "another", the indefinite article "a" is even built into the word.
svyatoslaw profile picture svyatoslawOctober 2019
We use "another", when we are talking about the next, but not last, thing in a row.
But we use "the other" when we say about the last thing in a row.
E.g. there are three people at the bus stop.
The first is a man, another is a woman and the other is a kid.