'I like their another app!' - 'Other' versus 'another'; grammatical usage

Question

I am helping a foreign language partner with English, but she asked me a question that stumped me.

If I understand correctly, 'Other' is an adjective. 'Another' is also an adjective.

Theoretically, if they are both adjectives, then they could be switched in a sentence without having to change the syntax.

However the sentence was given to me, "I like their another app."

I told her to use, "I like their other app."

It just doesn't sound right, but I cannot find any grammatical justification for saying what I am saying.

Please help.

Answer 1

There is no real evidence apart from the convention of writing it that way, that the string another is one word. It is two words written together as one: an and other.

If you look at it that way, the problem becomes easier to set out. English will only allow one central Determiner in a noun phrase. These are words like a(n), the, some, my, any and so forth. We can only have one of these words doing the central Determiner job. If we try to use two, the noun phrase will be ungrammatical:

• *the my friend
• *any the people
• *his some elephants

The reason why you cannot say I like their another app is because it uses two central Determiners: their and an:

• I like their orange dog.
• I like their other app.
• I like their baby elephant.
• *I like their an orange dog.
• *I like their an other app.
• *I like their a baby elephant.

In the second from last example, the convention is to write another as a single word, but that's because English is weird. (I mean just look at the word weird ...)

Answer 2

Saying another after their is a bit like saying "next" when you haven't even started. You need a first before you start on a second. Use another only when adding to some other thing.

You're both right. Another is a possessive pronoun and a determiner.

determiner

A determiner (also called determinative) is a word, phrase, or affix that occurs together with a noun or noun phrase and serves to express the reference of that noun or noun phrase in the context.

wikipedia: determiner

 

another

an·oth·er

əˈnəT͟Hər

determiner & pronoun

determiner: another; pronoun: another

1. used to refer to an additional person or thing of the same type as one already mentioned or known about; one more; a further.

"have another drink"

synonyms: one more, a further, an additional

"have another drink"

used with a proper name to indicate someone or something's similarity to the person or event specified.

"they said she was another Jennifer Aniston"

2. used to refer to a different person or thing from one already mentioned or known about.

"come back another day"

used to refer to someone sharing an attribute in common with the person already mentioned.

"his kiss with another man caused a tabloid rumpus"

google: define another

Answer 3

Let's not deal with nomenclature in grammar for a moment unless the "grammatical justification" you're looking for is just some name tags such as 'adjective', 'determiner', etc. I hope you aren't, because that's not what's important. What's important is the meaning of the word 'another', I think.

As Araucaria said, another means "an other," and it used to be written that way long time ago. Assuming that it still retains its original meaning, it's rather a simple matter to explain why this sentence doesn't work.

*I like their another app.

Because all you have to explain now is why "their" may not come before "a" or "an". In other words, you only have to explain why the following sentence doesn't work.

*I like their an app.

And here's one way to explain it in case you need one. Once you've spoken their, all you need to add is what "they" have in possession, e.g., app. But adding an before app sort of contradicts your having spoken their in the first place, because an app contradicts the initial setting that app is in "their" possession.