[Essam ABDOU]

المشاركة الأصلية كتبت بواسطة مستر/ عصام الجاويش

جمله الاختيارى بتاعه امتحان المستوى الرفيع والتى دار حولها جدل كبير دخلت كتبتها فى منتدى تعليمى بريطانى واخذت الاجابه القوا نظره :

by gaweesh on Sat Jul 11, 2009 1:08 am
We are going a long way ahead! ; let's wait for..........to catch up with us.
a) the others b) others c) another d) the other
I know that the correct choice must either be "a" or "b". However, I feel that both of them are correct. Please clarify this matter for me.
gaweesh
New Member

Re: What is the correct choice?

by Alan on Sat Jul 11, 2009 5:15 am
Either is grammatically possible. #2, however, is the more plausible, since reference would most likely be to a particular group of other people, indicated by the use of the definite article.

Dear Mr.Essam El-Gaweesh,

With all my respect to The Englishclub, though English (بتاع بلاده), they would not know better than L. G. Alexander, a man who wrote not only grammar books but many grammar references as well as our famous secondary series Practice and Progress in the 1980s, and Excel into the 1990s in our Egyptian schools.


On page 135 of his BLUE set book for A-Level Right Word Wrong Word, (in the comparison between other / others / another), you'll find the very same sentence.

We're a long way ahead; let's wait for the other people/the others to catch up with us. (Not * the others people* *others*)

Here's my point of view supported by the author's point of view:

Firstly, L.G. Alexander gave us the only correct choices: the other people / the others and excluded the others people [because it is originally wrong] and others [because it is indefinite. There is no definite noun (before it) for it to be used. We must have a noun to refer to before we use others. We cannot assume any noun if it isn't there. That's why he gave the second choice the other people, to make us understand he is referring to the noun "people"].

Let's analyse the meaning of the sentence:
We're a long way ahead …
Ahead of whom?

Ahead of others? or ahead of the others?

Very clearly,

THE OTHERS (those who were walking with us and whom we'd like to catch up with us again)

Best Regards