Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[Tetsu]

Say Mr. A is an investor. He always buys shares as shown in (a).
(a) He always buys one million shares of one company at one time.

Mr. A never buys shares as shown in (b) to (g) and so on.
(b) He never buys one share.
(c) He never buys sixty-seven shares at one time.
(d) He never buys nine hundred thousand shares at one time.
(e) He never buys five hundred thousand shares of one compny and five hundred thousand shares of another company (i.e. one million shares of two companies in total) at one time.
(f) He never buys forty thousand shares of a first compny, forty thousand shares of a second company, ..., and forty thousand shares of a twenty-fifth company (i.e. one million shares of twenty-five companies in total) at one time.
(g) He never buys one billion shares at one time.

And all his friends knows that.

In this situation, is it grammatically correct for him to say as (1) or (2) to his friends?
(1) I bought other shares.
(2) I bought another shares.

Thanks a lot for the help.

[CP]

Tetsu,

Both sentences are ungrammatical, or at least do not make sense to me.

I am not sure what you mean by saying, "I bought other shares." If you mean (as Mr. A) that you bought some more shares today, then you might say, "I bought some more shares today" or "I bought shares today." Everyone knows you mean that you bought a million shares of some stock today.

As for "I bought another shares," that is not correct because "another" means one, while "shares" is more than one. You could say, "I bought another million shares" or "I bought more shares," but not "another shares."

Hope this helps.

Yours truly, CP

[Tetsu]

Hello CP

Thanks a lot for your kind help.

I've wondered if or not they are correct. But I understand well. It's so clear to me now.

Thanks!