“Another” can be the perfect word or superfluous

2 comments May 24th, 2008

“Another” is fairly straightforward in the sense of “one more” — “let’s have another cup of coffee” — and in referring to differences or similarities — “we’ll settle this another time,” “he may prove to be another Hitler.”

The trouble comes with quantities greater than one. In a typical tallying, for example, the two numbers must be exactly the same to use “”another”: “Theater owners said 1,000 attended opening night and another 1,000 showed up for the next show.”

That’s correct — both are 1,000. Change either number (or both) so they no longer match, and “another” is incorrect.

I think “another” has become a comfort word, maybe for people uneasy with numbers. Notice that in the example above, “another 1,000″ underscores the notion that the second-night crowd matched the first night’s. Using any other numbers — “1,000 attended opening night and another 800 showed” and so on — “another” is not only incorrect, it has no real function. Go ahead, delete it. Any change in meaning?

Save “another” for that voodoo that it can do so well.