I have a friend who lives in Istanbul. We write emails to each other every week. The other day, he sent me some photos from his vacation home in Izmir. In almost every other photo he was standing with a different girl. He must be a popular guy there! He must be dating one after another.
Other is an intersting word in English. Do you know how to use other? Take a look at the paragraph above and then check out today’s lesson:
Each other means the two of us together, or all of us together. We can also say, one another:
- We write emails to each other every week. I write to him and he writes to me.
- Ed and Paul haven’t seen one another in a long time. Ed hasn’t seen Paul, and Paul hasn’t seen Ed.
- The three of us have worked with each other for ten years. All of us have worked together for ten years.
- If we all got along with one another, there would be world peace. If all of the people in the world….
Every other means there are at least three or more things and we are talking about the first, third, fifth, etc.
- In every other photo he was standing with a different girl. In the first photo, there was a girl, in the third photo there was a different girl, in the fifth photo there was yet another girl, etc
- Please write your essay on every other line on the paper. Please skip a line when you write your essay. Write on the first line, not the second. Then write on the third line, not the fourth, etc.
- I go to the gym every other day. For example, I go to the gym on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, etc
- We have a staff meeting every other Friday. This Friday there is a meeting, next Friday there is no meeting, the Friday after that there is a meeting, etc…
We use other with time expressions like this: the other day, the other afternoon, the other night, etc. This means the recent past. So the other day means a few days ago. The other afternoon means the afternoon a few days ago. The other night means a few nights ago, etc. Note that you need to use the with these expressions:
- I saw Bob the other day. He’s doing well. Not,
I saw Bob other day. - Do you remember what he told you the other afternoon?
- It was too cold the other night.
Well, I hope this lesson is as helpful as the one I wrote the other day. Feel free to send me your comments or suggestions for a one point lesson!
Comments 6
Thank you for your reply.
I should have thought more simply.
English is difficult for me.I want to lean and improve my English with your lesson.
It’s my pleasure to help. Sometimes when you think too much, you get lost.
Try this:
1)○●○●○●○●
-Every other circle is a black circle (it is akward to say I wrote (something) every other….)
2)○●●○●●○●●
-Every third circle is a white circle
We do not use numbers with every other, so “every 2 other” we don’t say.
I hope this helps
Hello.
I have a question about “every other”.
“every other” shows an interval.
When I write white circle（○）and black circle（●）as follow, how can I say them?
1)○●○●○●○●
I wrote a white circle(○) every other black circle(●).
or
I wrote a black circle every other white circle.
2)○●●○●●○●●
I wrote a white circle every 2 other black circles.
or
I wrote 2 black circles every other white circle.
Hi Natalia,
Thanks for your comment. OK! Lets look at “of” and “about” next time 🙂
i have learned some new things about using the word. pls tell of (or about) using the prepositions Of and About. it always confuses me. thank you.