Unit 8.2

Another vs Other vs The other

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Introduction

Determiners are modifiers of nouns. They can provide a wide range of information.

Another, other and the other look similar but they have differences in meaning.

Form

Another, other and the other are determiners used to give more information about a noun.

They have different positions:

another goes with singular countable nouns;
other goes with plural countable and uncountable nouns;
the other goes with singular and plural, countable and uncountable nouns.

Example

I would love another glass of rosé, please.
You’ve got to take another look at these photos.
I’m older than any other student in my class.
He heard some other information on how to decorate his house.
This mirror here is big. The other one is small.
She’s got two sons. One is 12, the other is only 2.

Use

We use these determiners when we talk about the same things or people in a sentence:

another: when the meaning is one more (an additional item/thing/person…);
other: when something/someone is different from something/someone mentioned before, and it also gives the meaning of extra, additional;
the other: when something/someone is the second of two things or people, or the opposite.

Summary

Another, other and the other are determiners used to give more information about a noun.

They have different positions:

another goes with singular countable nouns when the meaning is one more (an additional item/thing/person…);
other goes with plural countable and uncountable nouns when something/someone is different from something/someone mentioned before and it also gives the meaning of extra, additional;
the other goes with singular and plural, countable and uncountable nouns when something/someone is the second of two things or people, or the opposite.

For example:
— “I bought another house last week.” = I bought one house more even though I have one house already.
— “I bought other houses last week.” = I bought many more houses.
— “There were 2 houses in that district. I didn’t like the red one, so I bought the other one.” = I didn’t choose the red one, I bought the remaining house.