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Which of these three choices is considered more natural in the following context?

My friend is a student in a different college, and he wrote me that he has class now. Then I want to ask him if he's done with the classes for today after this class, but I wanted to use one of the following choices and I'm not sure which one is more natural for this purpose.

1) "Do you have more classes today?"

2) "Do you have another classes today?"

3) "Do you have other classes today?"

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    After @Alexei's answer, maybe you should edit option 2 or add a fourth: "Do you have another class today?"
    – RubioRic
    Commented Oct 25, 2018 at 12:11
  • "Do you have more classes today?" - note this has some ambiguity and COULD be construed as a comparison. For example they may reply: "Yes, I have more classes today" meaning "Yes, I have more classes than you today.". Thus of your three choices I choose none. Verbal speech reduces this with emphasis on specific words when uttered. Commented Oct 25, 2018 at 14:51
  • Just a minor observation, I think that the concept of a student "having a class" is probably American English and not British: though usage may vary. In England I think a "class" is more likely to mean a set of students who are taught as a group, rather than a particular teaching event or session. If you ask a teacher how many classes they have, they will probably interpret the question as meaning "how many groups of students do you teach?". But it's very context dependent. Commented Oct 25, 2018 at 18:01
  • @MichaelKay Thank you for your note. So what is the parallel expression in the UK? (maybe "Do you have more lessons today"?) Commented Oct 25, 2018 at 20:18
  • "Do you have other classes today?" means "Do you have any classes at any time today?", not "Do you have any classes after now?" Commented Oct 25, 2018 at 21:45

6 Answers 6

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I'm not a native speaker, but I know that another cannot be used with plurals. I'd suggest using:

Do you have any other classes today?

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    Thank you for your answer +1. I would like you to support your answer with source/s, then it'll be considered a good answer for a non English speaker:) and I'll learn something new today. B.t.w. I think that anyone he's a native speaker. You meant to say that you're not a native English speaker;) Commented Oct 25, 2018 at 10:37
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    You can also just use the singular, i.e. "Do you have another class today?"
    – Simon F
    Commented Oct 25, 2018 at 12:15
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    @notevilnorwicked - "I'm not a native speaker" is perfectly fine in this context, and is a commonly used phrase.
    – Guy G
    Commented Oct 25, 2018 at 12:31
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    Excellent answer. As a native speaker, this works fine, as well as OP option 1 Do you have more classes today? or modifying option 2 to the singular, i.e. Do you have another class today? (this works because "another" simply inquires about at least one; if the respondent has more than one class remaining, yes they do have another class today... and another, and another.
    – Doktor J
    Commented Oct 25, 2018 at 13:52
  • @DoktorJ re 1. Yes, I do have more classes today than you! So I prefer your modification (2) but better even perhaps this answer as it stands. (of those thee choices). Good comment BTW. Commented Oct 25, 2018 at 14:57
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You can say

1) Do you have more classes today?

2) Do you have any classes today?

3) Do you have other classes today?

4) Do you have any more classes today?

5) Do you have any other classes today?

6) Do you have another class today? (Thank you @Simon F)

7) Do you have (any) further classes/class today?

8) Do you have (any) additional classes/class today? ( Thank you @Mr Lister)

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  • If you want to add other words, how about "additional" or "further".
    – Mr Lister
    Commented Oct 25, 2018 at 12:58
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    But (as far as I understand --- not a native speaker) (2) does not have the same meaning as the other sentences. It merely asks if the student has one or more classes today. The answer to that is always "yes, I'm having one now", given the assumptions in the question. Commented Oct 25, 2018 at 13:35
  • @FedericoPoloni Yes you are correct about the meaning of the second sentence. However, I don't think the answer to this question should always be "yes" or I could not understand what you mean by that.
    – Mrt
    Commented Oct 25, 2018 at 13:40
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    I agree with @FedericoPoloni, #2 opens you up for the smart-aleck answer "of course I do, I'm in it now!" even if the respondent doesn't have any more classes after their current one. It does work from a grammatical standpoint, but is a bit more open.
    – Doktor J
    Commented Oct 25, 2018 at 13:54
  • You might consider ranking and/or grouping them by preference with any notes as to why. i.e. clarity, conciseness, written vs spoken (important in textual context such as text messaging, emphasis of a word in spoken language), formality of speech etc. Commented Oct 25, 2018 at 15:03
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The second version is wrong - 'another' is singular, and 'classes' is plural; they have to have the same grammatical number, so it should be either:

Do you have any other classes

or

Do you have another class

You can think of 'another' as a contraction of 'an other' - that is, 'one other'; this should make it easier to remember.

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1) "Do you have more classes today?"

This works but "Do you have any more classes today?" sounds more natural from my experience.

2) "Do you have another classes today?"

"Do you have another class today?". You could ask this if you wanted to know if there is one more class left after the current one. Another is usually used when referring to singular rather than plural.

3) Do you have other classes today?"

This works and sounds natural.

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Native speaker here. You could also consider rephrasing to be more explicit:

"Is this your last class for today?"

That sounds natural and casual, and is very clear. :)

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Here's when you'd use each question given by Mrt.

Although which one you use isn't that important and many people may not pick up on the subtle differences between them.

Do you have any classes today?

If you want to find out whether someone has at least one class today.

I would only ask this at the start of the day, since the phrasing focuses on the present and future, yet doesn't exclude the past, so it might be ambiguous as to whether you want to also know about the past. To ask about the future only, I might ask about "the rest of the day" instead of just "today".

This question wouldn't make that much sense if you already know about some of the classes someone has today.

Do you have other classes today?

If you know some of the classes someone has today (in the past, present, or future), or you simply assume they've already had a few classes today (in the past), and you want to know whether they have any more (in the future).

Do you have more classes today?

In this context, this is roughly the same as using "other".

In other contexts, it may have different meanings - if you ask whether someone has "other" burgers, you're asking whether they have other types of burgers. If you ask whether someone has "more" burgers, this may be interpreted the same, but you could also be asking whether there are any burgers at all left.

By emphasising "more", this may also be used to express surprise, in that they've already had a lot of classes, and you're surprised to find out they have even more (you can indeed also make that "even more").

Do you have any [more/other] classes today?

If you already know about "more" classes, and you want to find out whether there are any more in addition to those.

This may be used to express frustration at not being sure whether someone has more classes, e.g. you want to arrange something with them, and they reschedule a few times because they remembered about yet another class.

Do you have another class today?

If you want to find out whether someone has exactly one other class today.

This might make sense to ask close to the end of the day, when you'd expect someone to not have more than one class remaining.

Although I wouldn't expect someone to respond with "no" if they have multiple classes, but rather with either "yes, I have a few" or "actually I have a few".

Do you have (any) further classes today?

A more formal alternative for "more".

Do you have (any) additional classes today?
Do you have an additional class today?

A more formal alternative for "more".

This might be used to refer to classes which are themselves additional, rather than classes that you just haven't been told about yet. For example: you share "core" modules with someone and you ask whether they have any additional classes to find out whether they have classes for any of their electives today.

Do you have another classes today?

This is incorrect, as already mentioned.

An easy way to remember why is "another = an + other" and "an" means "one" (e.g. "I have an apple" means "I have one apple").

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