Learn English Grammar: EACH OTHER & ONE ANOTHER

Hi again. I'm Adam. Welcome back to www.engvid.com. Today's lesson is about reciprocal nouns.

This is something that gives people trouble often it seems, so I'm here to explain it

a little bit to show you when to use it, when not to use it.

First of all, what does this word mean: "reciprocal"? "To reciprocate"-that's the verb-"to reciprocate"

means to return an action. So I do something for you, you do something for me. The action

is reciprocal; goes one way, goes the other way. Doesn't have to be the same action, but

it's some sort of... Returning a favour basically or returning help.

So we can use: "each other" or "one another" to show a reciprocal action. These are called

reciprocal pronouns. Okay? "Each" is a pronoun, "one" is a pronoun, "another" is a pronoun.

These are in groups, they are reciprocal pronouns. Now, quite often, people mix these... They

mix the use of this with "themselves". Okay? "Themselves" is not a reciprocal pronoun.

"Themselves" is called a reflexive pronoun. I won't get into too much detail about reflexive

here, but a "reflexive pronoun" is a pronoun when you have the subject acting on the object,

and the object is the same as the subject. So: "I hit myself." I am the subject, I am

also the object. I hit myself, it's reflecting back to me. Reciprocal, there's always somebody

else or other people involved besides myself. Okay? Besides me.

"Tom and Jerry hated each other." Now, I'm not sure how old some of you are.

I know I'm maybe giving away my age a little bit, but Tom and Jerry were very popular cartoon

characters when I was a kid. Tom... Tom was the cat I believe, Jerry was the mouse, and

they always used to hate each other. Near the end, when I got older, they became friends;

it was very disappointing. It was better when they hated each other and always used to do

bad things to each other because they were... It was kind of funny. "Tom and Jerry hated

each other." Tom hated Jerry, Jerry hated Tom; the feeling was reciprocal. Okay? Here,

it's not an action, it's a feeling, but we can use it in the same way. We use it like

an action verb.

"Tom and Jerry hated one another." Basically, the meaning is the same. Now, there's

an argument between grammarians, people who study grammar, who think that "each other"

should only involve two characters, "one another" should involve more than two characters. Realistically

though, they're interchangeable; you can use one or the other. Everybody will get the exact

same meaning, regardless which one you use. Okay?

Now: "Tom and Jerry hated themselves."

Does this mean the same as these two? No, it does not. If we say: "Tom and Jerry hated

themselves." means Tom hated Tom, Jerry hated Jerry. No relation between the two. Tom hated

himself, Jerry hated himself. Okay? So this is not a reciprocal action; this is a reflexive.

Now, another situation we have is with the apostrophe. Okay?

"Linda and Kate were bridesmaids at each other's weddings."

"Linda and Kate were bridesmaids at one another's weddings."

"Wedding", I'm going to have to look that one up. "Each other's weddings" though for

sure. It basically means the same idea. One to you, one back to me; reciprocal actions.

And you can use it. Now, some people put these together, especially language learners who

are a little bit new to the language, they say: "Each other". Now, keep in mind, a native

speaker will take the "ch" sound with the "o" and mix it - "eachother", but they are

two separate words, you can't mix them. And some people also think you can put the apostrophe

after the "s", this is also not the case because we're talking about one person to one person,

so the "s" always comes... The apostrophe-sorry-always comes before the "s" to show possession. Okay?

It's a little bit confusing, but very useful to know how to use these. Actions going two-way.

If you're not sure, go to www.engvid.com, there'll be a quiz there where you can try

out these examples. And if you have any questions, please ask; I'll be very happy to answer them.

See you again.