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I'm curious to know how native speakers of English say it this situation:

There are four corners. A person is looking for something but he's told that he is looking in the wrong corner. The idea is to say that the person ought to look elsewhere (different corner).

I was thinking of a few ways to say it:

  1. You ought to look in a different corner.
  2. You ought to look in another corner.
  3. You ought to look in one of the other corners.
  4. You ought to look in some other corner.

Maybe there is a better way?

I wouldn't want to mention opposite corners or specific corners like: corner by the window or corner by the door.

Edit: I need to tell a person to look exactly in a corner but not in the one he's looking now. Phrases like: Try looking somewhere else, Look elsewhere - are too general.

For this not to sound silly, take the example of several books. What if you're searching for something in the wrong book.

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    I think the form "Try looking ..." is common. Ex. "Try looking somewhere else."
    – user3169
    Feb 26, 2018 at 6:35
  • @user3169 "Try looking" is okay to replace the first part of the sentence, but what about the other part? Feb 26, 2018 at 6:47
  • If it is clearly in a corner, I would choose "Try looking in another corner." I think this is more natural, though your other options say the same thing and would be understood.
    – user3169
    Feb 26, 2018 at 7:00
  • @user3169 "in another something" is the common way? Feb 26, 2018 at 7:04
  • If this is actually about looking for something in a book, that could make more sense. The "corner" example seems very contrived. You could edit to remove all references to corners and replace them with "book".
    – James K
    Aug 28, 2018 at 7:54

3 Answers 3

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Not a native speaker here, but the most natural sentence seems to be, "Try looking in a different corner."

"Another" is more often an equivalent to "one more in this collection of objects" (ru: "еще один"). Yes, it does have a seme of being "other", but there is a very strong connotation of "the next one in a row..." (e. g., "to get another slice of pie" — meaning "one more").

When you start typing "try looking in ...." in Google search, it gives a prompt, "...in a different spot."

So your best bet is "a different corner."

"Try looking in other corners" and "in another corner" is also possible. But, especially in AmE, "in a different X (place, corner, room, etc.)" would be possibly the most common way of saying it.

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  • Doesn't that imply that the corner itself is different in some kind of way? Feb 26, 2018 at 15:30
  • @SovereignSun No. That's contamination from Russian messing with your mind.
    – user68912
    Feb 26, 2018 at 15:48
  • @SovereignSun After all, поищи в другом углу doesn't mean that the corner is different in some way either (что "он другой"). "A different something" is different from "Something is different" in sorta the same way as "a brown pot" is an object where you plant flowers, while "brown pot" (without "a") is something else entirely :).
    – user68912
    Feb 26, 2018 at 15:53
  • @SovereignSun Другой — "different" and "other". "Another" - еще один.
    – user68912
    Feb 26, 2018 at 15:54
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    No, I downvoted your answer because it's wrong. You can use Try looking in another corner. and ...a different corner. interchangeably. (See here.)
    – user3395
    Feb 26, 2018 at 17:38
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If it's obvious the only options are the corners, then you could simply say "Not this one" or "Try another". You don't need to specifically reference them.

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  • I need to specifically reference the corners, that's the idea. Feb 26, 2018 at 6:48
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You could say

Not in this corner.

In context that would mean, "What you're looking for is not in the corner you're looking in at the moment, but is to be found in one of the other ones." At least that is the very strong implication of this.

Does your listener/reader really need to be told to look? Aren't they engaged already in the act of looking for something?

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  • Dear friend, I am really interested in the difference between "different corner","another corner","one of the other corners", and "some other corner". I could say, "Not in this corner" but what scratches my back is the word of phrase to use when referencing a corner which isn't this one. Feb 27, 2018 at 4:11

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