Thank you to my work colleague who gave me the idea for today’s writing tip – it’s one of her pet hates when people get this wrong. The rules are that you use between when relating to two things and among when it’s more than two. I’ve created some examples below:
- There is enough jelly and ice cream for Fred, Jack and Barney – I will share it among them.
- Jerry’s off sick today. Between you and me, I think he got drunk last night .
- Sean and Hayley won the lottery and shared their winnings among their three children.
- There are no car parking spaces between here and the cinema.
The website Daily Writing Tips has an article on these two words http://www.dailywritingtips.com/between-and-among/. They explain that “the preposition between is from an Old English word related to the word two” and “the preposition among derives from an Old English word meaning to mix or to mingle”. Click on the above link to see more examples of its use.
That’s it for today. This blog forms part of my writing challenge. Don’t forget that you can subscribe to receive my daily blogs by email so that you don’t miss any. Just click ‘sign me up’ on the home page. Alternatively you can follow my blogs on Twitter http://twitter.com/#!/madeirasandra or my new ‘Tips and Luxuries’Facebook page. Requests for future blogs (punctuation/grammar/writing tips) are always welcome.
Until tomorrow…
Sandra
My writing challenge: http://wp.me/p1x6Ui-4
This blog: https://mywritingnotebook.wordpress.com
My other blog: http://sandramadeira.wordpress.com
My website: www.tipsandluxuries.com (includes the introduction to my upcoming book ‘A Gift for Stressed and Busy Parents’)
Twitter: @madeirasandra and @tipsandluxuries
Reference list:
Daily Writing Tips: http://www.dailywritingtips.com/between-and-among/
My Writing Notebook 
I always love blogs like this. It is important that we, as writers, preserve proper word usage.
Posted by Jack Campbell, Jr. | September 16, 2011, 10:16 pm