Hello, everyone!

O podcast de hoje é sobre another, the other, others. Ouça como dizer:

* Esses são assim, os outros são de outro jeito

* Eu quero mais um (um outro) café

* Vou precisar de mais 3 dias para terminar isso

Transcrição

Hi! This is Ana Luiza and you’re listening to inglesonline podcast. To read the transcript of this audio, go to inglesonline.com.br and type “Como digo em inglês: um outro, os outros” into the search box.

So last week Adriana sent me a question about another, other, others and the others, and I thought it would be a good idea to talk about that in a podcast.

So let me start with another. I guess the most common way to use another is when we say another one, or another person, another car, another woman, etc. Another is basically the same as “um outro” or “uma outra” in Portuguese. In many cases, it means “one more”.

Example, I’ll have another cup of coffee, thanks. That means you’ve already had one or more cups of coffee, and you want to have one more cup of coffee. Like, one more cup of coffee in addition to the cups that you have already had. So you say, I’ll have another cup of coffee.

Sometimes it simply means “um outro” or “uma outra”, like in Portuguese. Example: People have different opinions about television. One popular opinion is, television is just entertainment. Another opinion is, television isn’t a good thing. In this case I could have said “Another one is, television isn’t a good thing” because it was clear that “one” corresponds to opinion, so it means another opinion. Another opinion is, another one is.

There’s a way to use another that doesn’t correspond exactly to the way we use “um outro” or “uma outra”. I’ll give an example: I haven’t finished my report yet. I’ll probably need another 3 days to finish it. You could think of it as “another period of 3 days”, but it’s common to say another 3 days. Another example, one more example: I’ve spent 200 dollars on my site but it still doesn’t work. I’ll have to spend another three hundred dollars to make it work. So, this may sound strange to our Brazilian ears at first, but you’ll get used to it.

So when do you use “the other”, instead of another? Well… that’s actually simple. Think of how you choose between “um outro” and “o outro” in Portuguese. You say “o outro” when you know which “outro” you are talking about. That’s “the other”. So, let’s say, if you have a blue shirt and an orange shirt in front of you and someone asks you, do you want to wear the orange shirt? You could say, no, I want the other shirt. I want the other one, or I want the other shirt. If you wanted some other shirt, but you didn’t know which shirt exactly you wanted, you could say, I want another shirt, or I want another one.

So, more examples. My cousins like horror movies. The other people in my family like comedies. Here, I’m saying “the other people in my family”. It’s very well defined, I’m kind of including the entire group of other people in my family. I’m saying “the other people”. If I said, instead, “My cousins like horror movies. Other people in my family like comedies”. Here, i’m saying that there are people in my family who like comedies. Other people. Maybe some people in my family like comedies, but not all the other people.

Another example, one more example: At my friend’s dinner there was a vegetarian dish. The other dishes included meat. The other dishes. That communicates all other dishes. If I said, “There was a vegetarian dish.