Korean Job Discussion Forums

[raewon]

I have a grammar question on the structure "any other" + noun, as I cannot find a clear answer in any of my trusty sources for the case of negative sentences. Is "any other" followed by a singular noun, a plural noun, or could either one be possible?
For example:
(a) I have not studied any other language.
(b) I have not studied any other languages.

To me, they both seem OK... but I'm worried that one is not grammatically correct.

And...does the context influence which one to use?
For example:
(c) I've only studied Spanish. I have not studied any other (?).
(d) I've only studied Spanish and Chinese. I have not studied any other (?).
Are the singular and plural forms OK in both (c) and (d)?

Thanks for any help on this one.

[schwa]

Both seem perfectly fine. In (c) & (d) too.

I'd suggest "any other" is open-ended that way.

[raewon]

Thanks for the reply. As I said in the first post, they both sound OK to me, but suprisingly I couldn't find any "proof" from Swan or Azar to back it up.
Maybe I was looking on the wrong pages. Other than message general message forums with people agreeing/disagreeing about this, I couldn't find any reliable source on the net either. My search skills must be lacking today.

[schwa]

"Another" vs "any other."

"Another," only one of course. But "any" could mean one or more.

[radish kimchi]

Logically speaking, it depends on context. One could even argue both are incorrect because they are unnecessary. The second sentence shows emphasis, it doesn't introduce any new information. So it depends on what you want to emphasize.


A and B don't have enough to go on.

"(c) I've only studied Spanish. I have not studied any other (?)."

If, by studying Spanish, you mean you regularly studied it instead of several languages at one time, then it comes off as "I haven't done it yet." The "it" being singular, another language = any other language.

If, by studying Spanish, you mean you have studied Spanish among a specific group of languages (Portuguese, Italian, Greek), then it comes off as, "I haven't tried them yet (as opposed to this one)." The "them" being plural, any of the others = any other languages.

"(d) I've only studied Spanish and Chinese. I have not studied any other (?)."

Harder to classify Spanish and Chinese into one group, so I would opt for singular here unless you added, "I have not studied any of the others which...."

[DosEquisXX]

[raewon]

Thanks for the other replies. Now I'm slightly confused again. I couldn't find anything under "another" versus "any other". I'm not sure why my grammar books don't seem to cover "any othher". Maybe it's not to be used.

How about this one:

A: Have you ever been to France?
B: No, I have never been to any other __________.

Are both "country" and "countries" possible?

Thanks.

[radish kimchi]