Between or Among: Not a Simple Choice
Many of us were taught in school that the choice of "between" or "among" in a sentence was cut and dry: "between" was used when dealing with two people, things or ideas; and "among" was used for more than two. In modern (today's) evolved English that is the common or general rule, but by no means always the final determination of the correct or preferred choice. Although, most of the time, the general rule leads us to choose the "correct" word.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary (the holy grail of our English language), the common rule we learned in school is wrong because it can lead us into errors using "among." For example:
— The voters have to choose between (not among) the four candidates.
— Georgia lies between (not among) Florida, S Carolina, Tennessee and Alabama.
— The inheritance was equally divided between (not among) the five children.
To quote Grammar Girl on the Internet: " Here's the deal: you can use the word “between” when you are talking about distinct, individual items even if there are more than two of them. For example, you could say, "She chose between Harvard, Brown, and Yale" because the colleges are individual items."
The Chicago Manual of Style describes these as one-to-one relationships.
Sometimes they are between two items, groups, or people, as in these sentences:
—Choose between Squiggly and Aardvark.
—Let's keep this between you and me.
Other times they can be between more than two items, groups, or people as in these sentences:
—The negotiations between the cheerleaders, the dance squad, and the flag team were going well despite the confetti incident.
—The differences between English, Chinese, and Arabic are significant.
On the other hand, you use “among” when you are talking about things that aren't distinct items or individuals; for example, if you were talking about colleges collectively, you could say, "She chose among the Ivy League schools."(End of text copied from Grammar Girl.)
After we choose "between" correctly, we must be careful to choose the correct object of the preposition. Many conversationalists and writers mistakenly use the incorrect personal pronoun (I) or the reflexive pronoun (myself) as the object of the preposition "between."
Example #1
— That is an agreement between Mary and I. (Incorrect - "I” is not an object pronoun)
— That is an agreement between Mary and myself. (Incorrect - ”myself" is a reflexive pronoun, not an object pronoun)
— That is an agreement between Mary and me. (Correct - ”me" is an object pronoun)
Finally, we must take into consideration that "between" and "among" can change the meaning of a sentence:
Example #2
— The hiker walked between the trees.
— The hiker walked among the trees.
And "among" can be used to indicate that someone is part of a groups:
Example #3
— George is among the survivors.
— Fear spread among the passengers.
Life was a bit simpler before I started writing this post!
