0

This passage about the Swedish fika appeared in an English exam in Taiwan:

Surprisingly, many Swedish companies insist that their employees take two fika breaks during the workday. This often equates to one fika break in the morning and _____ in the afternoon.

The answer given was "the other", the reason being that the two fika breaks have been mentioned in the first sentence so we should use "the other" to point specifically to "the other fika break". I chose "another", though, because it sounded more natural. (I've always relied on intuition rather than any grammar rules)

Is it a grammatical error to use "another" here? Which choice sounds more natural to you?

Improve this question
1
  • 1
    There is no accounting for some of the answers regarded as correct in English exams nor, regrettably, any recourse for students who know better than their examiners.
    – Ronald Sole
    Sep 2, 2022 at 13:22

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
2

You can equally correctly fill the blank with 'one', 'another', or 'the other'. None of these sounds more 'natural' than the others.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .