他: "Other than..."

Introduction

Welcome, to an entire lesson wholly devoted to one word: 他ほか. Why go through so much trouble for just one word? Well, 他ほか is special. And you'll see why.

So without further ado...

他ほか: A new word for you

他ほか tends to give learners a fair bit of trouble, but this is only because most resources tend to teach it in a strange, roundabout way, and only ever in combination with other particles (usually に). Then they start to tack on は and も and a side of fries, which leaves the learner entirely confused as to why such a seemingly simple word needs so much dressing up.

The reality is that 他ほか is just a regular old noun that means "other" or "something else". We can use it in a whole gambit of contexts, and this means that it can be used in combination with just about every particle imaginable.