"He lives in a different city."

Translation: Han bor i en annan stad.

[Rycecube]

Why not 'olika'?

[devalanteriel]

You'd use olika to differentiate between multiple things, since it's in plural. For instance: "de bor i olika städer" ("they live in different cities").

When using it in singular, its meaning is restricted to a comparison of behaviour or appearance. So "han är olik de andra" means "he is unlike the others."

Hence, "han bor i en olik stad" would mean roughly "he lives in a city that does not appear to be like", and has about the same grammatical weirdness to it.

[Rycecube]

That makes perfect sense, thank you!

[Gerda82]

Now I get it. Tack så mycket!

[dcounts]

Thank you!

[LuigiisLuigi]

Can this be accepted, "han bor i en andra stad"?
If not, why?
Tack

[tjasonham]

Same question!

[Zmrzlina]

No.

Andra works with plurals and/or definites. This sentence is neither, so you have to go with annan.

[tjasonham]

Ah, so then:

"Han bor i en annan stad."
"De bor i andra stader." (and not annan)
"Den andra stad." (and not annan)

[Zmrzlina]

Almost!

Han bor i en annan stad. De bor i andra städer. Den andra staden.

[OpenVMS]

Can I say it using stan instead of stad?

[devalanteriel]

stan is a shorter version of staden, i.e. "the city". So it doesn't work.

[zzzFrazzz]

Why not 'annat'?

[KteCMHkt]

"annan" to me, means "other" -- even in this context. I used "annorlunda" instead. Why won't this work?

[devalanteriel]

annorlunda means different as in e.g. curious or quaint.

[AthanasePernatte]

So how would you say "this is different"?

[devalanteriel]

Det här / detta är annorlunda.