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Friday, June 13, 2014

Between vs. Among

Photo credit: Gwydion M. Williams on Flickr
Photo Credit: Flickr
I haven't talked much about English grammar rules on this blog. It's time for that to change,

As writers, good knowledge of grammar can only help you in your writing projects. I always assume that everyone has the same grasp of basic grammar rules as I do, but you know what they say about assuming things.

When I was in high school, a woman named Mrs. Landreth taught me everything I know about grammar. In fact, I still refer to the notebook I kept in her class. Not everyone has a Mrs. Landreth. I guess that's where I come in.

One of the easiest grammar lessons I can teach you is the difference between (ha) the words between and among.

You should use the word between when referring to two subjects. For instance: Mr. Brown lives between Mr. Pink and Mrs. Gray.

In contrast, you should use the word among when three or more different subjects are concerned. For example: "Always shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars."

Pretty simple, right?

What do you think of this little grammar lesson? What other grammar questions would you like to see answered?

Tweet tweet:
When should you use "between"? What about "among"? Writer @thecollegenov has the answer. (Click to tweet)

6 comments:

  1. I still struggle with the use of "that" and "which". I've read that (ha) the former is used to introduce non-essential phrases in a sentence and the latter essential phrases, but I think I need an extra tutorial on the same. Maybe this time will stick well enough for me to use them correctly without thinking too hard about it.

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  2. Ooh, those are tough ones. I'll write a post outlining the differences next week! Thanks for commenting. I hope I can help. :)

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  3. I am aware how basic this sounds, but could you please do a comparison of effect vs. affect? Multiple teachers have attempted to explain this to me, but they have all differed in explanations. Thank you.

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  4. Sure! I've been meaning to do that one for a while now. :)

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  5. […] my last grammar post, I’ve had several requests for […]

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  6. Thanks for the feature! It helped a great deal.

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