Questão FC478700
Is other a verb?
Gramática (Grammatics)
FGV · 2025
Is other a verb?
Like many English words, other possesses great flexibility in meaning and function. Over the past few centuries, it has served as an adjective, an adverb, a noun, and a pronoun. In recent decades, other has increased its part-of-speech portfolio to include verb use, having acquired the meaning "to treat or consider (a person or a group of people) as alien to oneself or one's group.” Some people find it disconcerting when a word takes on a new part of speech, a process known as functional shift. The phenomenon is quite common, however -- our language contains many thousands of words which are reported to have been formed in this fashion.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/other.
Forms of other can be used as either adjectives or pronouns – besides the more recent verb form. They include others, the other, the others, another. Indicate the correct use of one of these forms:
- One of the students is from Portugal; anothers are from Spain and Italy.
- In my opinion, the English language is easier to learn than others.
- Another day she told me she’d like to learn how to drive.
- Some people need 8 hours of sleep, but the others don’t.
- I lost my passport and had to apply for the other.
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Comentário do professor
Na frase In my opinion, the English language is easier to learn than others, others funciona como pronome plural que retoma implicitamente other languages (outras línguas). A expressão completa seria “easier than other languages”, mas é comum e correta omitir o substantivo quando ele é evidente pelo contexto.
A estrutura é típica de comparativos: comparative + than + others. Aqui others não vem acompanhado de artigo nem de substantivo, pois substitui o termo já subentendido; indica um conjunto genérico de línguas em comparação com o inglês.
Portanto, a alternativa é correta porque preserva a gramática do comparativo e usa corretamente others como pronome para referir-se a “outras línguas” de forma geral.
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