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[Tae Kim](http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/grammar/surunaru) translates
the following as:

他にいいものがたくさんあるけど、やっぱりこれにする。  
_There are a lot of other good things, but as I thought, I'll go with this
one._

Here is 他 a noun, adjective or an adverb? I would think adjective, but then
why the に？ Because 他 is a の (as opposed to な）adjective then the conjugation to
change to an adverb should be "他く" not "他に". However, 他 (ほか) does not end in い
so I'm thoroughly confused as to how 他 conjugates as an adverb.

Can someone please explain to me what 他 is and why we use 他にいいもの as opposed to
他いいもの or 他のいいもの to express "good things"?
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-12-31T16:35:44.383
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question
particles adjectives adverbs na-adjectives
Usage and relation of に to 他
I would recommend avoiding projecting English/Western linguistic terminology
onto Japanese as much as humanly possible, as it will mostly just distort what
is really going on. Focus on how it is used until you're ready to read about
[native Japanese linguistic
analysis](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E8%AA%9E#.E6.96.87.E6.B3.95).
他に is ほかに because that's how it's used, in the end.

A more satisfying answer in between blind tautology and heavy-duty analysis is
to analyze 「他に」 as a 'list of alternatives', as shown by the 「これにする」fragment.
"他に" is expressing the existence of other choices, which you know is given the
に particle.

> 「 **どれに** する？」
>

>> 「うん…これと、これかな。」

>
> 「 **他には** ？」
>

>> 「あと、そこの…」

>
> 「赤いの、それとも、青いの？」
>

>> 「うん…やっぱり **青いのに** しよう。」

(If you are a programmer or an adventure gamer, you can think of it as a
forked path, and the "に" here as marking a direction or destination you go to
upon choosing.)
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answer