English Grammar: “Other” vs. “Another” Difference

Other & Another: the Difference in English Grammar

Let's review the grammar rules for another, other, and the other:

another + singular nonspecific countable noun


Examples:

  • "Let's meet another day."
  • "I'd like another piece of cake."

The nouns ("day" and "piece") in both sentences are countable and singular (e.g. not with an 's') nouns.

The nouns in both sentences are also not specific. This means that the speaker doesn't care which day or piece of cake he gets; he just wants a different one. He wants another one, but he hasn't said (or it isn't clear or important) which one.

Hint: If you understand English articles ("a/an/the"), then think of "another" as "an + other." You can use "another" before a noun whenever you can use "a(n)" before a noun. The rules are the same. Another = an other!

 

other + plural or uncountable nonspecific noun


Examples:

  • "Other people have problems, too." [people = plural noun]
  • "This book has other information." [information = uncountable noun]

The nouns in both sentences are not specific, just like with "another". The speaker doesn't specify which other people have problems, or what other information the book has. The rules are the same as "another" except that "other" is used before plural or uncountable nouns.

Hint: If we think about articles (a/an/the) again, then remember that we use "other" before a noun that would NOT need an article.

 

the other + specific noun (singular, plural, countable or uncountable)


Examples:

  1. "I have two brothers. One of them lives in Canada. The other brother lives in Japan."
  2. "I go to school on Monday and Thursday. I work on the other days of the week."

The nouns ("brother" & "days") in both sentences are specific.

Re: Example #1: What brother lives in Japan? The other brother. The speaker said he has two brothers. He told you where the first brother lives, so the other brother must be his second brother. This is a specific brother (not general). You know what brother he is talking about.

Re: Example #2: What days of the week does he work on? Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday. The speaker said he goes to school on Monday and Thursday. You know that the other days of the week are Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday. So the speaker says "the other" because it is clear what other days of the week he works on. Specifically, they are Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday.

Hint: Thinking about articles again, the rules for "the other" are the same as the rules for "the" + noun.

Do you think you understand?

Let's see! Take the test:

Three of my friends live in Boston. One is a doctor, one is a dentist, anddoesn't have a job. The friend without a job's name is Craig. Craig needs a job. He also hasproblem: he needs a new girlfriend. His last girlfriend left him because she metman.man was rich and handsome. I told Craig not to worry about it; there are manygirls in the world.

I hope this was helpful. As we have seen, you need to understand how to use English articles (a/an/the) to use "another/the other/other" correctly. Articles are not easy. Keep studying, practicing, and don't give up!

- Matthew Barton of Englishcurrent.com

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63 comments on “English Grammar: “Other” vs. “Another” Difference

  1. Pawel (Posted on 1-15-2013 at 10:59) Reply

    In the test, “a new a girlfriend” probably should read as “a new girlfriend.”

    1. mb Post author (Posted on 1-15-2013 at 20:23) Reply

      Thanks Pawel! I fixed it.

  2. Wayne (Posted on 2-6-2013 at 15:18) Reply

    I understand and agree with your explanation for “another” with singular. But it is also correct to say (e.g.) “There are 5 horses in this stable and another 3 [horses] in that stable.” So here, “another” is used with a plural noun. True? I suppose you could split hairs and say it is really “another GROUP OF 3 [horses]” to make it singular. Your thoughts?

    1. mb Post author (Posted on 2-6-2013 at 21:26) Reply

      Wayne: Good thought. I had never thought about that. With “another 3 horses,” I’d agree that we’re talking individual 3-horse groups though, separately. Grammatically the noun ‘horses’ is plural but perhaps ‘three’ can be also thought of as a noun, e.g. in the sentence ‘and then another three arrived’. Here three is a singular noun. I’m not a grammarian, but it is interesting though. Thanks for the comment!

      MB

    2. uca (Posted on 12-24-2013 at 17:00) Reply

      in “another three horses”, another means “more” – three more horses. We especially use another in this way when we talk about distance and time. For example: I need another ten minutes or we’ll walk another two kilometres.

      1. fan (Posted on 11-16-2015 at 12:54) Reply

        I saw this problem before. I think when you make a sentence with cardinal numbers that stands before plural noun. You can use “another” and accept it like a special situation

    3. giotd1703 (Posted on 9-26-2018 at 12:43) Reply

      it’s true: another+number+gular noun

  3. Divine (Posted on 4-21-2013 at 18:12) Reply

    I find this site very useful to me since i am just starting to learn to set a grammar and study the english word.

    1. Lili (Posted on 4-5-2017 at 03:31) Reply

      me too. but i don’t know english like you… :(

  4. farzane (Posted on 6-29-2013 at 14:56) Reply

    it was really helpful. thanks for your perfect explanation

  5. imam (Posted on 9-5-2013 at 07:22) Reply

    Good Very good but you have to increase that again and again just it for you thanks !!

  6. Adriaan (Posted on 10-11-2013 at 00:10) Reply

    What if you’re trying to say “a different” in stead of “an additional”?
    For example: He lives in an other street. Is “an other” here correct, or it it still another?

    1. Adriaan (Posted on 10-11-2013 at 00:14) Reply

      Or should I not have used “in stead”, another spelling of the word “instead”? :)

      1. mb Post author (Posted on 10-11-2013 at 09:42) Reply

        There is no “an other” in my opinion. There’s a thread on it here: http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=1690 , but after reading it, I still hold the same opinion.

        “In stead” should also be together in modern English. There is an expression ‘in sb’s stead.’ But that requires a determiner (in HIS stead, in HER stead). You don’t see it written without one (nowadays at least).

  7. Diaa meher (Posted on 12-6-2013 at 12:31) Reply

    in this topic is complete plz I request u mention the proper definition andexample of other ,anotherp

  8. Raºl from Sap (Posted on 12-7-2013 at 15:39) Reply

    According to Cambridge Dictionary we have to always use “another” before numbers, like Wayne said in the comment number 2: “There are 5 horses in this stable and another 3 [horses] in that stable.” But, if we said for example,”I want to buy the other three horses(I know the horses I’m talking about)Cambridge Dictionary is not accurate, I think.
    I have another doubt. What happened in this case?
    Imagine that I am in a snack bar with a friend and I have already eaten a sandwich. If I said to my friend “I want another sandwich”, it would be correct because here, sandwich is a non-specific name and it’s singular and countable and there are no determiners.
    But if I said “I want another blue cheese sandwich with mayonnaise”, would it be correct like that? I have the doubt because this sandwich,is in a way, an specific sandwich. It’s true that there may be over one blue cheese sandwich with mayonnaise in the snack bar. If there was only one blue cheese sandwich with mayonnaise we may say “I want the other blue cheese sandwich with mayonnaise”
    I don’t know if you understand my question, my english is not completely correct and I don’t know if I explained well. Thanks a lot four your lesson and for your time.

    1. Raºl from Spain (Posted on 12-7-2013 at 16:03) Reply

      I have seen two mistakes in my last comment. It would be “What would happen in this case?” instead of “What happened in this case?” and my name is Raºl from Spain, not Raºl from Sap. I’m sorry. Thanks

      1. Raºl from Spain (Posted on 12-8-2013 at 15:45) Reply

        Explanation: When I said in my main post, between brackets, “I know the horses I’m talking about”, I mean that this fact it is a true premise for me, although it was on only a supposition. Thanks

    2. mb Post author (Posted on 12-8-2013 at 23:04) Reply

      Hi Raºl. Thanks for the comment. In my post, I have used the words ‘specific’ and ‘non-specific’ a lot. These terms may be a little problematic. For example, if you tell your friend, “I have another job now.”, you are talking about a specific job (the one you have now). It’s not general. A trainer of mine preferred the terms ‘particular’ or ‘definite’ (although that doesn’t solve the problem really).

      Regarding your sentence, “I want another blue cheese sandwich with mayonnaise”, it does sound like we are talking about something fairly specific here too, so again the word ‘specific’ doesn’t seem like the right word. But, with that said, you aren’t saying specifically (or particularly) which other sandwich you want (there may be 3 blue cheese ones left), so it’s lacking some specificity. You could certainly be more specific, e.g. I want The blue cheese sandwich with mayonnaise that is beside the coke bottle.

      It sounds like you understand determiners quite well. Thanks for the comment.

      1. Raºl from Spain (Posted on 12-12-2013 at 18:38) Reply

        Thanks again. I understand you perfectly. I’d like your opinion about the use of another before numbers. I am still thinking it depends of the context.

  9. Nadya (Posted on 4-1-2014 at 14:15) Reply

    Thank You soooo much for your help! This is the best explanation ever!!!!

  10. anand (Posted on 5-11-2014 at 18:34) Reply

    what about others…

    This bike might be slow but  others  are much faster,

    here I can't use other …explain ?

    1. mb Post author (Posted on 5-11-2014 at 23:58) Reply

      Your example is good. Others = other bikes. 'Others' here functions as a pronoun, replacing the original noun (bikes). The noun it is replacing (bikes) is plural, so you should use 'others' (with an S). 

  11. Rotua Meyly (Posted on 5-22-2014 at 21:04) Reply

    Alright, actually I would like to ask a doubt in my mind when I was studying in the class. We were studying about Forms of Other, and one of the questions at that time was "I got three letters. One was from my father. ………… one was from my sister. ………… letter was from my girlfriend." My opinion at that time was "I got three letters. One was from my father. The other one was from my sister. The other letter was from my girlfriend." But, the conclusion for the right answer that we agree at that time was "I got three letters. One was from my father. Another one was from my sister. The other letter was from my girlfriend." what do you think about this. Hasn't the letter been specify in this case? That's three letter? then why we use another there? Thank you. I'm waiting for your explanation. 

    1. mb (Posted on 5-22-2014 at 23:27) Reply

      "I got three letters. One was from my father. Another one was from my sister. The other letter was from my girlfriend." < — this is correct. 

      You cannot use 'The other was from my sister' because it wouldn't be clear to the listener which letter you refer to. You know one was from your father. Now, two letters remain. You cannot use "the" (the definite article) to refer to the next letter because it could mean either of the two. You can only use 'the other' to refer to the last letter AFTER mentioning the first two because it is the only one that remains; it must be the one you are talking about.  Does that help?

      1. Rotua Meyly (Posted on 5-23-2014 at 00:07) Reply

        Yeah.. I got it now.. Thanks mb.. 

  12. Andres (Posted on 6-3-2014 at 23:17) Reply

    My question is in this case:

    The selected registry was deleted in another session / or /  The selected registry was deleted in other session,  Help me please! 

    1. mb (Posted on 6-4-2014 at 08:10) Reply

      another.  'Session' is  a countable noun, so you cannot say 'in other session.'

  13. Rod (Posted on 6-12-2014 at 00:40) Reply

    Thank you so much for this article. It really helped me a lot!

  14. Thando (Posted on 10-2-2014 at 01:41) Reply

    This is really helpfu… Is there any user account so we can be able to sign up and log in when ever we need help?

    1. mb Post author (Posted on 10-2-2014 at 21:52) Reply

      Thanks. And no, there are no accounts. But you can comment whenever you want if it’s relevant to the page.

  15. socorro azpiri (Posted on 12-13-2014 at 10:43) Reply

    Excelente explicaci³n, muy clara y sencilla, sin complicaciones. Gracias mil¡

  16. Charlize (Posted on 12-25-2014 at 07:36) Reply

    Okay, I came here because I ran into this sentence in a novel. I found several hotels in the area, and I called each desk and asked if Harry Jones was registered there. The clerks checked and came back, “No, sir”, one after ___________.

    Would the answer be different if the sentence read, Each clerk checked and came back, “No, sir”, one after _________.

    1. mb Post author (Posted on 12-27-2014 at 23:36) Reply

      After doing a few minutes of research, I have concluded that ‘one after the other’ and ‘one after another’ can be used synonymously. Feel free to correct me if I’m mistaken.

  17. gulshen (Posted on 10-9-2015 at 13:52) Reply

    Do we never use singular noun after other ?

    1. mb Post author (Posted on 10-9-2015 at 18:42) Reply

      Nope

  18. MrPakit (Posted on 10-30-2015 at 12:40) Reply

    This article is simply the best for making clear the use of other, another and the other.

    Thanks kindly mate.

  19. Huynh Minh (Posted on 4-4-2016 at 17:27) Reply

    Thank you very much, i’ve read a lot of other articles but yours is the best. I fully understood.

  20. Adam Joseph (Posted on 5-18-2016 at 05:15) Reply

    OK, but there’s no explanation of this structure:
    Another + Number + Plural Noun.
    This is not my only car. I have another 3 cars at home (=3 other cars at home.)

    1. mb Post author (Posted on 5-18-2016 at 15:03) Reply

      True! Thank you for the contribution.

  21. April Nyein (Posted on 7-16-2017 at 03:36) Reply

    Thanks a lot for your clear explanation.

  22. Amin (Posted on 7-20-2017 at 03:09) Reply

    Hi,
    Please check these two sentences and let me know which one is the best or most colloquial.
    In one sentence “another” is used while in the other I used “other”.
    Thanks.

    Languages are so different that a person does not understand the language of someone from
    another region, country or continent.

    Or

    Languages are so different that a person does not understand the language of someone from
    other regions, countries or continents.

  23. MB (Posted on 7-20-2017 at 13:38) Reply

    Both are grammatical.

    1. MB (Posted on 7-20-2017 at 13:43) Reply

      It is a bit awkward; I might change it a bit. “Languages can be so different that communication is often impossible with people from a different region, country, or continent.”

  24. Amin (Posted on 7-21-2017 at 21:13) Reply

    Thank you very much MB.
    I also like your rephrasing which seems more natural.

  25. Somanea (Posted on 8-31-2017 at 01:45) Reply

    Hi, my name is somanea and thank you so much for tnis lesson, i find it very helpful for me and here i also have a question for you too. Imagine, if im in a drink shop that it serves only 2 types of flavors. They are strawverry and apple. I drank the strawberry one already but suddenly i wanted to have a glass of apple drink. So i waved to the waitress and say, ‘i’d like to have another flavor drink.’ Or should i say, ‘i’d like to have the other flavor drink?’ I wish i made sense to this question and i also wish you would answer this question for me.thanks<3

    1. mb Post author (Posted on 8-31-2017 at 20:12) Reply

      Hello Somanea. If the waitress knows that you drank a strawberry drink, they you should tell her, “I’d like to have the other flavour” since she know’s ‘the other flavour’ = apple.

      If the waitress doesn’t remember or know what flavour of drink you had, you could say “I’d like to have another flavour” since ‘THE (other)’ won’t be useful to her since she doesn’t know what you had first. But this sentence isn’t very helpful, of course. Instead of saying this sentence (“I’d like to have another flavour”), it would make more sense to say “I’d like to try the apple drink” so she won’t have to ask you, ‘And which flavour would you like?’

  26. Ansari (Posted on 9-12-2017 at 08:22) Reply

    hi
    my name is ansari. i am so confused about the sentences. the sentence is SHE MET ANOTHER MAN. THE OTHER MAN WAS RICH AND HANDSOME.
    there is written ANOTHER MAN in the first sentence and THE OTHER MAN in the second sentence.
    WHY.

    1. mb Post author (Posted on 9-14-2017 at 01:47) Reply

      Please use lowercase letters when making a request. Also, it would help if you used polite language (‘please’). To answer your question, please remember the differences between ‘an’ and ‘the’. When we first introduce a noun to someone we are speaking to, we use ‘a(n)’. For example, ‘I have an apple’. Then, now that the listener knows the apple, we can say ‘The apple is green.’ We use ‘The’ to refer to a specific noun. The rules are the same for (an)other and the other. For more help with articles, see this page: https://www.englishcurrent.com/grammar/english-articles-definite-indefinite-help/

  27. Julius (Posted on 11-13-2017 at 01:13) Reply

    Great , Thanks . I just learned your article and another article about “How to use ‘another’ ” on this website “https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/another”.

    I think that “another article” is right here…Cz I want to express that other articles about xxx and I didn’t specify it.

  28. Bande (Posted on 8-30-2019 at 09:40) Reply

    Hi, how are you?
    First of all I would like to thank you for your explaining; this website is very helpful.

    I have a question, could you please help me with?

    You said above ( the other + specific noun (singular, plural, countable or uncountable); so what if _ the other used as a pronoun for uncountable_ ? Could you please give an example for it?

    For example: (The other luggage will be received by this time tomorrow.) >> here “the other as an adjective with uncountable noun” <<
    Can we use "the other as a pronoun/ noun of uncountable nouns?

    For example: (Your money will be given tomorrow; the other will be sent to the bank) Is this correct ? ):

    My best regards

    1. mb Post author (Posted on 8-30-2019 at 17:01) Reply

      Hello. Yes, it can be used as a pronoun. Your example is correct. It seems to make most sense with tangible things, e.g. luggage, data, money, that you can imagine dividing into “this” and “the other”.

  29. Vitaly (Posted on 12-15-2019 at 15:31) Reply

    Hello.
    What is the difference in meaning between “watch on another channel” and “watch on the other channel” ?
    Google gives more examples with the second option.
    I don’t think this is because there are only two tv channels aired somewhere these days. )
    Thank you.

    1. mb Post author (Posted on 12-15-2019 at 15:35) Reply

      Hello. If you say ‘the other channel’ it means your audience understands what other channel you are talking about. For example, if you are choosing between Channel 44 and Channel 55 and currently watching 44, ‘watch on the other channel’ would be channel 55′ whereas ‘another channel’ could be any channel from 1-43, 45-54, 56+.

        1. mb Post author (Posted on 12-16-2019 at 13:11) Reply

          Yes, this is strange. He’s speaking like it’s 1975 and there are only two channels. I do not know why he says ‘the’ and not ‘an’ here.

  30. Nessi (Posted on 7-27-2020 at 06:31) Reply

    Hi there. I have a question: is it gramatically correct to say ” You’ve already seen Henry but I have another three brothers.”? Or should be “three other brothers” or even “the other three brothers”? I would be grateful if you could clarify it to me. Huge thanks in advance!

    1. mb Post author (Posted on 7-27-2020 at 13:19) Reply

      Hello. You can never use another with a plural noun (brothers), for the same reason you cannot use “an” with a plural noun (this is because “an” means one). I would recommend: “You’ve already seen Henry but I have three other brothers.” Do not use “the other three” because the listener does not know them yet, so using the definite article ‘the’ is incorrect.

      1. Nessi (Posted on 7-29-2020 at 07:37) Reply

        Thank you for your answer! Still I have some doubts about “another” because I have seen some other examples where “another” can be used with plural nouns if there is a numeral between them, for example: “He’ll stay in the village for another two days”. How different is this example then?

        1. mb Post author (Posted on 7-29-2020 at 14:13) Reply

          Hello. Good question about quantifiers. Here, ‘two days’ is being considered as a block/group. I can imagine that he stayed in the village for two days, and then he decided to stay for another two days. There are two things/periods being counted here: the two days before, and the two-days after. In short, your are right. Another + quantifier + plural noun is possible. COVID19 has been here for about four months. It may stay another four months.

          1. Nessi (Posted on 8-1-2020 at 18:45)

            Thank you for the answer!

  31. Colleen (Posted on 1-31-2021 at 13:50) Reply

    How do you make another plural?

    As in… I check very carefully whether mine or anothers’. Here, Anothers’ means someone else’s, but I don’t want that much verbiage.

    Thank You!

    1. mb (Posted on 1-31-2021 at 22:36) Reply

      Hello. You cannot pluralize another because ‘an’ means one. Your sentence doesn’t need a plural noun, it needs a possessive apostrophe. Correctly, it would be written: “I check very carefully whether mine or another’s.” < Here "another's" means "another person's [thing]."

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