OTHER, OTHERS or ANOTHER?

As a teacher, I correct lots of writing activities a week, and one of the most consistent mistakes is the misuse another and other.

ANOTHER

So, when do you we use another?

Another is the combination of an + other, which means: one other.

As he waited for her, he had another cup of coffee.

An means one. One refers to singular. Therefore, another is used before singular nouns.

OTHER

Other is used before plural nouns.

There are other people waiting on the line. (more people)

OTHERS

What about others then?

Well, others is used when you don't mention what you are talking about. It is used to avoid repetition.

A lot of people came today but others will come tomorrow. (=other people)
Some papers are on the table, the others aren't here. (=other papers)
These dogs are poodle, the others are Yorkshire. (=other dogs)

Ok, now it's your time to practice it HERE and HERE.

See you soon!
J.

PAST PERFECT? WHAT'S THAT?

Time to face another verb tense. This time, we are analyzing the Past Perfect.

Basically, the Past Perfect is the past of the past.

How so?

Check out this example:

She left school. [2pm]
I arrived at school. [3pm]

So, when I arrived at school, she had already left.

Therefore, we did not meet.

Once stories are usually written in the past, the Past Perfect is used to refer to the past of the book (so, the past of the past). You can observe this in the fragment below:

ROWLING, J. K.. Harry Potter and the prisoner of Azkaban, 1st edition – Bloomsbury: 1997 - http://freeharryporterebook.blogspot.com/

All these events happened before the time of the narrative. They are Harry Potter's past, before the book started.

So, time to practice it! Try it HERE and HERE.

Cheers,
J.