Another vs Other

Another problem, among all other problems, is the use of ANOTHER and OTHER.

    -  It seems that the only translation learnt when starting to study English is ANOTHER. It is used here universally for singular and plural items.

    -  The problem is probably compounded through the fact that ANOTHER is one word whereas in Portuguese it is two words.

    -  ANOTHER has to be seen as not one word, but as two words that have been joined together to form only the one.

    -  AN is the Article and signifies ONE as in AN event, AN interesting article, AN Elephant etc.
AN OTHER or ANOTHER is a variation of the same theme.
    -  In use we say - There is ONE OTHER problem, or ANOTHER problem. ONE OTHER thing - ANOTHER thing I like etc.

    -  If the object is plural, it makes no sense to use ANOTHER things. But we can, and should use - OTHER things, OTHER people, OTHER objects. ANOTHER person had OTHER ideas about the project.

    -  OTHER never uses an `S` when followed by an object. The sentence `He has OTHERS cars` is wrong. `He has ANOTHER car, or he has OTHER cars.`

    -  The form OTHERS (with the S) is only used when we already know what the object is and the object doesn't need to be repeated.
    -  John and his friends have 5 cars. He has one car and the OTHERS have two cars each.(OTHER friends)
    -  The only OTHER country that speaks Portuguese in the Americas is Haiti. No OTHER countries speak Portuguese. One country speaks French and the OTHERS speak Spanish. ANOTHER country that speaks Portuguese is Portugal.

Possessive Pronouns

In recent posts, I have referred to the Gender issue when moving across from English to Portuguese and back again. Quite often, it seemed to matter only when taking into consideration the use of Articles in a structure.

More recently I discovered another anomaly where Gender plays a great part.

Consider the following sentence.
      'Mary took HIS car to be fixed' 
    -   I of course, tried to correct this and at times joked with the student about an unidentified MALE entity that was suddenly introduced into the conversation.
    -   I never really tried to understand the reason behind the mistake, especially when the student seemed to use the possessive pronoun correctly in the sentence 'Mary took HER table to be fixed'
    -   Over subsequent classes, the problem returned and disappeared seemingly randomly so I put it down to tiredness or a lack of attention.

    -   Then, last week I was prompted to reflect on this issue once again when I referred to the Gender influence.

With the help of some of my students, I began to learn the true reason why Brazilians confuse the use of possessive pronouns in English.

    -   The Subject - I, we, you, they etc take the possessive attitude in English. Objects are referred to by the pronoun 'It'. When we wish to attribute a possessive attitude to an object it will always be with Its.

    -   'Mary took her Car with its broken window to be fixed'.
    -   'The dog buried its bone under the tree.'

In Portuguese, the possessive form is attributed to the object.
    -   In the sentence, 'Mary took HIS car to be fixed'  (Mary levou SEU carro) - it is the object Car that is referred to in the possessive case. Car is carro in Portuguese and receives a masculine attribute, 'o carro', hence the use of HIS.
    -   In the sentence ''Mary took HER table to be fixed, (Mary levou SUA mesa). Table = mesa, receiving a female attribute - 'a mesa', resulting in HER table.
    -   Portuguese is more like English when the structure changes in the sentence - 'Mary levou o carro dela' (Mary took the car hers), or 'Mary levou a mesa dela' (Mary took the table hers).


Now that you understand the reasoning behind the mistakes made, it is time to remind you of the correct structures.
Mary took HER car and HER table to be fixed. The gender case is the subject Mary, she - her.
John took HIS car and HIS table to be fixed. Once again the Gender case is the subject John, he - his.
They took THEIR cars and THEIR tables to be fixed. (They - their)
We took OUR cars and OUR tables to be fixed. (We - our)
Mary took HER brother to the doctor's, then John took HIS sister out to dinner. Later they took THEIR mother to the cinema. (as above)

Come back / Go back / Return

So what is it we are doing?
Are we GOING BACK, COMING BACK, or can we simply say RETURNING?

For some reason, it seems so easy and natural for me to choose the correct form because it is intuitive. I have grown up with a sense of what it is TO COME and TO GO, so it is hard to stop and try to understand why it is so counter-intuitive for non-native speakers.

I remember mentioning in one of my early posts, how hard it is to `Gender` things in Portuguese (adding an `a` or an `o` to the end of nouns like Marcelo, carro (male) and Marcela, mesa (female)), as is done in many Latin-based languages. For speakers of these languages, it is as intuitive for them to understand `Gender` as it is for me to understand COME and GO.

So let`s begin.

GO - A place we want to reach, to get to, a destination.
    -  I am GOING home late today. When I get home I will order Pizza.
(I am not at home, I am somewhere else so I have to GO home from where I am)
    -  I am GOING BACK to bed. I am still tired.
(I am not in bed, perhaps I have just left it, but I want to RETURN to my bed.)

COME - To me, from somewhere else to where I am.
    -  He is COMING home late today. When he gets home, I will order Pizza.
(I am at home and my brother is somewhere else so he has to COME home from where he is.

    -  Are you COMING BACK to bed. I am still tired?
(I am in bed, perhaps my partner has just left it, but I want my partner to RETURN to my bed.)

In these examples, I have tried to make the idea of COME and GO as simple as possible. The use of COME or GO depends on how the information you are giving relates to YOU or the TARGET Subject.

Consider the following;
    -  `Sorry Mum, I am only GOING home when I am ready.`
(The TARGET Subject is ME - I could be going anywhere, and eventually it will be home.)
    -  `Sorry Mum, I am only COMING home when I am ready.
(The TARGET Subject is MUM - I am replying to Mum asking me `When are you COMING home?`)

Now, what about the BACK.
    -  When I COME BACK FROM New york, I will phone you.
(Here we are talking about a future event where I am not in New York at the moment but expect to go there soon, then RETURN TO the place of speaking. Note the matching FROM.)

    -  When I GO BACK TO New York, I will study more.
(In this case I WAS in New York and am not there now. I intend to RETURN TO New York and hope to study more once I am there. Note the matching TO.)

The translation from Portuguese includes BACK, while there is always confusion as to whether to use COME or GO as in COME BACK or GO BACK. (BACK in this structure is a preposition.)
BACK by itself can NOT be used.
    -  I need to BACK home just doesn't work. You MUST use GO BACK or COME BACK.
(BACK can NOT be used as a verb in this context.)

    -  In the famous phrase - 'I'll be back' - BACK is used as an adjective in the same way as HOME in 'I'll be home' and HAPPY in 'I'll be HAPPY'

When unsure of which option to use, GO BACK or COME BACK, it is much simpler to use RETURN.

In all of the above examples, RETURN works perfectly well