Between and Among

The preposition between is from an Old English word related to the word two. It denotes a position between two things:

The guard stood between the door and the street.

Just between you and me, I’m surprised that a graduate of Yale wouldn’t speak better English.

The preposition among derives from an Old English word meaning to mix or to mingle.
Use among when speaking about more than two things:

We wandered among the poppies, looking for the road to Oz.

Let’s keep this information among ourselves.

A common error is to use between where among is more appropriate:

I was one of eight brothers. Our parents never made any difference between us.

Better: Our parents never made any difference among us.

Maeve on October 25, 2007 Subscribe to our RSS Feed

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Sous Rature on October 26th, 2007 2:30 am

It’s a little subtler than that, actually given that one of the two “things” could actually be a plural–”I’m between the trees and the building.” Between-ness (sorry for the neologism) essentially implies placement on a line that passes through one distinct thing or group and one other distinct thing or group.

Sorry to pick nits.
Roshawn on October 26th, 2007 2:44 am

“Our parents never made any difference among us.”

Although grammatically correct, it still sounds…uh…wrong. But that’s just me.
Himangshu Dutta on October 28th, 2007 8:57 am

good
savita on October 31st, 2007 5:59 am

what about giving the difference between among and amongst here?
Maeve on October 31st, 2007 7:31 pm

Savita,
Good idea. I’ll address your question in another post.
mandy on August 5th, 2008 6:43 pm

well really it is a nice topic and illustrations were good.
i appreciate.