Teacher Discussion Forums

Hi everyone,

I'm back again. Could someone please try to spot the mistake in the following sentence:

Scientists could see little difference between the three drugs.

Ta!

B.

I can feel deja vu coming on.

I am going to asume that you believe that it is a mistake to use the word "between" because you will contend that something can only be between two objects not three or more. This is not true and is an example of prescriptive grammar.

The difference between "between" and "among" is that the former implies an equal relationship or certainty of position, and the later an unequal/uncertain relationship, or uncertainty of position.

Right. That's why it's all right to say: We had a bottle of wine between the three of us. I knew that. But still, where's the mistake there? I got that sentence from a TOEFL preparation book, so there should be some sort of mistake there.

We had a bottle of wine between the three of us. I knew that. But still, where's the mistake there?

The mistake there is obviously in not having one each!

The case of 'between' and 'among' is an excellent example of textbook writers come across an inadquate explanation, and then try and make the language fit the explanation.

The difference between 'between' and 'among' is that 'between' is used for discrete entitities and 'among' for an amorphous mass.

Now the important thing is how you are visualizing what you are describing. If you say He walked between the crowd the image is of his path cutting the crowd into two or more discrete parts, rather like Moses crossing the Red Sea. if you say He walked among the crowd then we get the idea of a pleasant amble in the midlst of a lot of people.

We say They haven't got a decent idea between them because we are considering each their cluelessness individual by individual, but There is a general consensus among them because we are considering them as a whole.

The idea that "between" can be only used for two tnings is a particulary pernicious piece of misinformation.

I agree that Andy and Stephen have got it exactly right. If the TOEFL prep book is suggesting that there is an error in the sencence, the book is wrong. (But then what do you tell students who are preparing for the exam? )

Larry Latham

You tell them to forget the BS exam and concentrate on becoming good at English rather than pseudo-English...then they'll at least stand some chance of bluffing their way into a job, even if bluffing their way into a university would remain "difficult".