Between or Among?
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Hi there. My name is Emma. Today, we have a very exciting lesson for you, a very exciting
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grammar lesson. I know some of you are probably thinking, "Can grammar really be that exciting?"
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I think yes, yes, it can. We're going to be looking at the difference between "among",
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"amongst", and "between".
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What we're going to do is, first, we're going to look at how teachers often tell you what
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the difference is. I'm going to call this the simple difference between "among" and
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"between". Then we're going to look at when this simple difference rule doesn't work.
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We're going to look at the rule, and then we're going to look at when the rule doesn't
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work. Let's get started.
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A lot of teachers, and you may have heard this before, they often say that we use "between"
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when we're talking about two of something; maybe two people, two items, two animals,
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two objects. We use "among" when we're talking about three or more items. Again, it can be
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people, objects. This is what a lot of teachers say. In general, this rule does work, but
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again, there are many exceptions to this rule, which I will talk about in the second part
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of this video.
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Let's look at the first sentence, which is an example. "The bill was split between Frank
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and Mark." We have two people, so this is okay. "...between Frank and Mark". "The bill
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was split", meaning... when you go to a restaurant, at the end of your dinner they give you a
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piece of paper and it might say $40 -- this is how much you have to pay. What Frank and
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Mark did is they split the bill "between" them, meaning Frank paid some and Mark paid
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some.
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A second example: "Between you and me, I think Jane should tell her mom the truth."
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What does this mean? Again, there are two of us; you and me. Often times we use "between" to
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say "let's keep this a secret between us." "Between you and me, I think Jane should tell
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her mom the truth." You may have noticed I underlined "me" in red marker. Some people,
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especially native speakers, think this is "I". They think "Between you and I, I think
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Jane should tell her mom the truth." This is in fact incorrect. Because "between" is
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a preposition, it should be "me" after, but you will hear a lot of people say, "between
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you and I". You'll hear it all the time. It's not grammatically correct.
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In our third example, we're using "among". "Among the books, I saw an old photo." Books
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-- there're more than two in this case. It might not be clear, but I'm talking about
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more than two books. Another sentence: "I walked among the trees."
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Now we're going to look at when this rule, two items versus three+ items, does not apply,
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when this rule doesn't work.
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If you look over here, we have "between", "between", and "between". On this side, we
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have "among", "among", and "among". What do you notice about these sentences? Take a second
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to read them. "I must choose between U of T, UBC, and McMaster University." Are there
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two items in that sentence? No, there're three items, and yet, we use "between". Same with
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the next one: "There was an agreement between members of the Justin Bieber Fan Club, the
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Katy Perry Fan Club, and The Black Sabbath Fan Club." Again, we have three items. We
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could even add to those; we could say the Marilyn Manson Fan Club, and KISS Nation,
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for example.
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Here again, "There is a trade agreement between Mexico, Canada, and the United States." I
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said before that we use "between" for two, and "among" for three, but you see here, this
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isn't the case. My point is, although "between" is often used "between" two things, it's not
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always. Sometimes, "between" is used with more than two things. How do we know when
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to use "among" and when to use "between" in this case for these exceptions? We use "among"
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when we're talking about groups, where the group is general, there aren't specified members,
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and it's a mass of people; an undefined group, you could call it. I'm calling it a group noun.
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An example: "I must choose among universities in Canada." I'm not talking about specific
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universities; I'm talking about universities as a whole. Compare this to where we use "between".
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We use "between" when we're talking about individual relationships, or one-to-one relationships.
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For example, "I must choose between the University of Toronto, the University of British Columbia,
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and McMaster University." In this case, we're talking about universities as a whole group;
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in this case we're talking about the relationship between me and U of T, me and UBC, and myself
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and McMaster University. If you compare these two sentences, I'm hoping it will become a
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little bit clearer to you.
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Let's look at another example. "There was an agreement among all members." We're not
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talking about specific members with specific names; we're talking about members as a whole
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group. It's considered a mass noun, a collective group. If we compare this to "There was an
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agreement between members of the Justin Bieber Fan Club, the Katy Perry Fan Club, and the
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Black Sabbath Fan Club.", we're now talking about a one-to-one relationship: there was
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an agreement between the Justin Bieber Fan Club and the Katy Perry Fan Club; the Justin
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Bieber Fan Club and the Black Sabbath Fan Club; the Justin Bieber Fan Club and, if we
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had KISS Nation, KISS Nation. There was an agreement between the Katy Perry Fan Club
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and Black Sabbath Fan Club, and so forth. The main thing is we're talking about one-to-one relationships.
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Our third example: "Trade agreements exist among countries." We're not talking about
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distinct countries, we're not talking about specific countries, we're talking about countries
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as a group, as a collective whole; whereas in this case, "There is a trade agreement
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between Mexico," -- which is a distinct country -- "Canada," -- again specified individual
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country - "and the United States." If you compare these sentences, you'll notice, here
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it's looking at a whole, a group as a whole, and when we use "between", it's looking at
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one-to-one relationships.
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Let's look at some more examples of when we would use "between" versus "among".
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Okay, I just explained some of the difficult rules, now we're going to look at some of the easier
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rules between "between" and "among". One easy rule is when we use the word "difference".
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If you have the word "difference" in the sentence, use "between". For example: "There is a difference
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between the Canadian, the Australian, and the New Zealand accent." Anytime you see difference
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- "There is a difference between cats, dogs, and polar bears." Another example: "There
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is a difference between DVDs, Blu-Ray discs, and VHS tapes." Anytime you see "difference",
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use "between". Opposite to this, when we use "distribute", use "among". For example: "The
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tips were distributed among the waitresses." You see the word "distribute", use "among".
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Next, let's talk about location. Often, we use "between" and "among" when we're talking
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about physical location. When we use "between", we're talking about a specific path or point.
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For example, Bolivia -- it's a country in South America - it "lies between Chile, Peru,
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Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay." I think Paraguay, from what I remember. "Bolivia lies
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between Chile, Peru, Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay." If we drew this on a map... I know
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Bolivia doesn't look like a circle, but just pretend for a second. We can have Chile here,
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Peru here, Brazil here, Argentina here, and Paraguay here. I know South America looks
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nothing like this; this kind of looks like a flower. Just for you to understand the idea,
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with "between" you should be able to put an X. It's something specified.
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Another example; sometimes we talk about when we're walking. "I walked between the trees
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and the house." This is a path; it's a defined path. Compare this to "among". When we use
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"among", there is no defined path. If I had a picture like this with a whole bunch of
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trees I could say, "I am among the trees." -- meaning you can't really put an X where
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I am. Here, you can put an X; it's a defined path. You know where I am. When I'm talking
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about "among the trees", it's not specific.
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Now let's learn about the word "amongst", and then we will do a quiz together.
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At the top of the board, I have the word "amongst", and I have the example, "Talk amongst yourselves."
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I hear this fairly often; teachers use it a lot in Canada. In the United States, people
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don't usually like to use "amongst"; they find that old-fashioned and archaic, meaning
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they don't really use it that often. In the United States, you would probably use "among";
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you wouldn't use "amongst". In Canada, sometimes, and in Britain, you'll hear people sometimes
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say "amongst". This is a difference between American English and British English, and
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it's often used just like "among".
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Let's look at two different meanings of "among". The first one I have is: "among" can also
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mean "included in". What do I mean by this? I have an example sentence; "Among those in
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the audience was Arnold Schwarzenegger." In this case, I mean included in the audience,
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there was Arnold Schwarzenegger. He was in the audience, he was included in the audience.
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"Among" can also mean "one of". For example, "Lake Huron is among the largest freshwater
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lakes in the world." -- meaning it's one of the largest freshwater lakes in the world;
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not the largest, but one of the largest. We can also use "among" to mean these two things,
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and you'll see this is very common.
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Now let's do three test questions together. Number one: "There is a difference ________
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then or than." Do you think it's "among" or "between"? "There is a difference ________
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then or than." One thing I would notice first of all, the word "difference", that's a hint.
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Secondly, we only have two items, so that's another hint. If you said...
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"between", you're correct. "There is a difference between then and than."
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Sentence number two: "We have a traitor ________ us." In this case, what do you think it is?
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If you said "among", you're correct. We're looking at "us" as a whole group, not distinct individuals.
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Number three; so either "among" or "between". "________ cooking, studying, and working,
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I have no time to play video games." Do you think it's "between" or "among"?
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Okay, so I know there are three objects, but are they a group, or are they individual? They're individual.
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"Between cooking, studying, and working, I have no time to play video games."
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I invite you to come practice the difference between "among" and "between" at our website,
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at www.engvid.com . We have a quiz there, so you can double-check to make sure you get
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the meaning. Until next time, take care.
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Learn English for free www.engvid.com
