is there anything else remaining? [closed]

Some example sentences:

1) "His first child is a boy, while his remaining/other children are girls."

2) "He spend hundred dollars on a suit and the remaining/other dollars on new shoes."

3) "The first car was faster than the other/remaining cars."

Following my intuition, it is 1) other and 2) remaining. However, is there a rule for more complicated cases, like 3)?

Solution 1:

"Remaining" means "the ones that are left after the others have been removed/have gone".

So, let's look at your examples:

1) "remaining children" implies that the first child has died, so that's not right! Use "other".

2) He's spent some money, and has some left, so calling the money he still has his "remaining money" is appropriate. (BTW, you should say "He spent one hundred dollars..." or "He spent hundreds of dollars...", not "He spend hundred dollars...")

3) You would only use remaining if he doesn't have the first car any more, and since this isn't specified, you should say "other".

Solution 2:

"Remaining" implies that something has been removed, or taken away. In the case with describing persons, in certain contexts it can mean a subset of a group where one or more has died .

Sometimes "other" has the connotation that you're describing one item out of a group of two, unless a number has been specified.

Consider usage of "the rest".