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Natybrazil Posted 18 years ago
Grammar

other/another

I read a sentence in a book that made me think for a while:

"Peddy is getting married to other woman".

Here other is followed by a singular noun, woman. If the author had written to another woman, would it imply that Peddy is already married and then got married to second woman? The sentece made me think because I always use other followed by a plural noun.

Looking forward to the answer!
Thanks.
  

Top answer

Hi Natybrazil I'd say there is simply a typo in the sentence. It should probably be either "... to another woman" or "...

— Yankee

  • Hi Natybrazil I'd say there is simply a typo in the sentence.
  • It should probably be either "...
  • to another woman" or "...
  • to the other woman".
  • Without any further context, I would assume the intended meaning to be Peddy is getting married to a different woman.
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13 Answers
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Hi Natybrazil

I'd say there is simply a typo in the sentence. It should probably be either "... to another woman" or "... to the other woman".
Without any further context, I would assume the intended meaning to be Peddy is getting married to a different woman.
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natybrazil"Peddy is getting married to other woman".
It should be "another woman" (or "other women" would be grammatically correct, but hardly likely).*

However, the number of Google Book Search hits for "to other woman" puzzles me. Some, like "to other woman writers" are OK, but there seem to be too many others that aren't. It's a simila
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Yes! In the story Paddy wants to get married to a different woman, not the one he was dating.

I'm glad you also think that it should be either to another woman or to the other woman.

Thanks!
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Mr Wordy
However, the number of Google Book Search hits for "to other woman" puzzles me. Some, like "to other woman writers" are OK, but there seem to be too many others that aren't. It's a similar story for "with other woman" etc. Are they really all typos or OCR glitches?

Hi Mr Wordy

What do you mean by Some, like "to o
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Yoong LiatWhat do you mean by Some, like "to other woman writers" are OK? Shouldn't it be 'women writers'?
The singular (compound) noun is "woman writer"; when it's pluralised it should, strictly speaking, be "woman writers". Compare with, say, "child prodigy", the plural of which is "child prodigies" not "children prodigies". Similarly, you wou
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Mr. Wordy, So, both woman drivers and women drivers are commonly said?
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New2grammarMr. Wordy, So, both woman drivers and women drivers are commonly said?
I would have guessed that "women drivers" is more common, and Google Book Search (which we think is a better indicator of "good English" than web search) bears this out:

"women drivers": 819

"woman drivers": 225

I'm not sure why so many people naturally
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We use the plural men and women to modify plural nouns when they have a 'subject' meaning; man and woman are used to express an 'object' meaning.

Compare:

men drivers ( = men who drive)

women pilots ( = women who fly planes)

man-eaters ( = lions or tigers that eat people)

woman-haters ( = people wh
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Yoong Liat
man-eaters ( = lions or tigers that eat people)
woman-haters ( = people who hate women)

Absolutely.
Yoong Liat
men drivers ( = men who drive)
women pilots (women who fly planes)

If by "we use" the author is implying that "woman pilots", "woman writers"
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Hi Mr Wordy

I was taught by my grade 2 BrE native teacher that the plural of 'woman writer' is 'women writers'. That's why I was surprised when I read 'woman writers' instead of 'women writers'.
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