Between and among are both prepositions people often use in English. A preposition is used to show place or time. It also indicates how many objects are involved in a relationship or event.
Using prepositions can help make your sentences clear and easy to understand. However, there are many types of prepositions and they all have different meanings from each other. Therefore, you need to be careful in choosing the correct preposition to use.
Summary Table
| Between | Among |
| Used to indicate the position in the middle of two things. | Used to indicate how one thing correlates to a larger whole. |
| Used when talking about two things. | Used when talking about more than things. |
| Direct (one-on-one) relationship. | Unspecific relationship between one-many. |
In English, the words between and among are used in several ways. Most people know that among is used to indicate a collection of things, but they don’t always understand how between is used.
We can illustrate the difference between these two words with simple explanations.
Definitions
Between can be used to indicate a position between two or more things.
Example: A few days ago I received a new book on Greek mythology. The book was between mythological tales and true stories of real people.
Between is often used to mean “in the middle of” or “neither too far nor too close.”
Example: She lives between two parks. It’s an easy walk to get to both parks, but there are a lot of cars on the road, so it’s not as easy as it used to be.
Among can be used to indicate that something belongs to a collection of things.
Example: The sunflower seeds are among the little gifts you can get at the end of the holidays.
Between vs Among
The main difference between Between and Among is that Between establishes there is a presence between two or more things, while Among says this presence is a part of a larger thing.
You can use Between when you want to discuss how two things are related to each other. You can use Among when you want to discuss how two or more things are related to a larger whole.
When talking about the relationship between things, persons, or objects, we can use between for more direct relationships, such as one-on-one. Meanwhile, we use among for indirect relationships, such as one-many, and many-one.
