Between Vs Among

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Between Vs Among

by kapur.arnav » Tue Oct 26, 2010 9:31 am
1) Use between with two items.
e.g:
Emily was standing between Sam and Adam.
Ram divided his property equally between his two children.


2) Between can be used to talk about distance and intervals.
e.g:
I will be at the college between eight and ten.
The distance between wooden studs in new houses in UK is 350mm


3) Between is used before each
e.g:
There seems to be less and less time between each event
Insert a space between each character
There are 9 lines between each centimeter


4) Use among with three or more items.
e.g:
Ram divided his property equally among his three children.
The letter is somewhere among these papers.


5) Use between when something/ someone is between several clearly separated thing/ people. Use among when something/ someone is in a group/ crowd/ mass which we cannot see separately.
e.g:
My villa is between the woods, the river and the village.
Your villa is hidden among the trees.


6) When talking about dividing and sharing things between or among more than two people or groups - can use any of the two
e.g:
Ram divided all his property between/ among his children and grandchildren - both between and among are correct
We shared the work between/ among four of us. - both between and among are correct


7) Generally between is used after difference.
e.g:
What's the difference between a Democrat and a Republican?
There are enormous differences between developing countries in burden of disease , financial resources, educational attainment, and health systems

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Source: — Sentence Correction |

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by arora007 » Thu Dec 30, 2010 9:55 pm
Good post...some of my thought on cases which you have mentioned.

The distance between wooden studs in new houses in UK is 350mm. -Dont know either

The letter is somewhere among these papers.
The letter is somewhere between these papers. - how about that, seems okay

My villa is between the woods, the river and the village. -Dont know either
My villa is among the woods, the river and the village. - how about that, seems okay
My villa is inbetween the woods, the river and the village. - how about that, seems okay

Ram divided all his property between/ among his children and grandchildren - both between and among are correct NO there is more than one child and more than one grandchild... which makes a sum total greater than 3, so among is correct.
Ram divided all his property among his children and grandchildren.

There are enormous differences among developing countries in burden of disease , financial resources, educational attainment, and health systems
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by lunarpower » Sun Jan 02, 2011 2:07 am
this analysis is way too complicated, and parts of it are wrong. here is an analysis of each part that you wrote.
kapur.arnav wrote:1) Use between with two items.
e.g:
Emily was standing between Sam and Adam.
Ram divided his property equally between his two children.
correct.

--------------------
2) Between can be used to talk about distance and intervals.
e.g:
I will be at the college between eight and ten.
The distance between wooden studs in new houses in UK is 350mm
correct, but there's no need to treat this as a separate case -- this is just another instance of "between two items", since any interval is located between its two endpoints.

---------------------
3) Between is used before each
e.g:
There seems to be less and less time between each event
Insert a space between each character
There are 9 lines between each centimeter
no, this is incorrect; both "between" and "among" would be wrong in this kind of construction. this is strictly informal, spoken language.

the only context in which you could get away with this is a context in which "each" is followed by something that represents a group of two, such as "pair" or "couple".
for example, heated arguments occurred between each couple at the dinner party is a legitimate sentence, but it doesn't work like the examples you are trying to write here: it refers to arguments that occurred between the members of each couple, not between different couples.

4) Use among with three or more items.
e.g:
Ram divided his property equally among his three children.
The letter is somewhere among these papers.
continued below...
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by lunarpower » Sun Jan 02, 2011 2:07 am
5) Use between when something/ someone is between several clearly separated thing/ people. Use among when something/ someone is in a group/ crowd/ mass which we cannot see separately.
e.g:
My villa is between the woods, the river and the village.
Your villa is hidden among the trees.
nope -- not in formal written english.
this usage should be subject to the same simple rule: "between" for 2 things, "among" for 3 or more things. so, in formal written english, the first of these would be incorrect, while the second would be correct (if we assume that there are more than two trees).

6) When talking about dividing and sharing things between or among more than two people or groups - can use any of the two
e.g:
Ram divided all his property between/ among his children and grandchildren - both between and among are correct
We shared the work between/ among four of us. - both between and among are correct
nope -- this is another case in which you use "between" for 2 parties, "among" for three or more.
so, these should both be "among": in the first one, both "children" and "grandchildren" are plural, implying that the property is being divided among at least four people; in the second one, it is explicitly mentioned that there are four people.

7) Generally between is used after difference.
e.g:
What's the difference between a Democrat and a Republican?
There are enormous differences between developing countries in burden of disease , financial resources, educational attainment, and health systems
no.
this is yet another instance in which you just follow the simple rule: "between" for two, "among" for three or more.
the first sentence is correct, because the comparison is being made between exactly two parties.
assuming that there are more than two developing countries under discussion, the second is incorrect in formal written english (although it's a very common mistake in spoken language and in the writing of inferior writers).

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this post is actually somewhat ironic, because "between"/"among" is one of the very few issues in sentence correction that is basically black-and-white, with few (if any) exceptions.
since the world of sentence correction is so heavily populated by constructions with multiple usages and multiple exceptions, it's even more important to keep the simple things simple.
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