among vs amongst ap style

Brad Allison Maret 18, 2022 among , ap , style , vs Comment

In some situations you can swap out amid for among. Used when you are dividing or choosing something and three or more people or things are involved.

Among Vs Amongst How To Use Amongst Vs Among In English Confused Words

Whenever I write the word among I always double take and think should I be using amongst.

. Amongst has the exact same meaning and grammatical rules as among. Alternatively use whilst in serious contexts or statements that are more formal and provisional. In association or connection with.

Often amid and amidst are confused with among or amongst. The two prepositions among and amongst often confuse many of us because we are not sure of the difference between them. While use while for regular statements.

For example Asians have been staying amongst us for long. In other words there is no semantic difference change in meaning between the two words. Difference Between Among and Amongst.

In a sense the terms among and amongst are associated with the concept of other where the sentence is describing a mass noun whether or not the narrator is apart of the sentences nouns or not. Being included or happening in groups of things or people. See usage note at amidst.

When to use amongst. Only use between when youre referring to two things just between us between a rock and a hard place you must choose between cake or death and use among when referring to more than two youre among friends among the many options available to you. Among is used as a part and parcel of American English style whereas the preposition Amongst is used as Britains English style of language.

Amongst in comparison showed up in the language in Middle English circa 1200 CE. The -st at the end of amongst is a holdover from a period of English in which s sounds were added to words usually nouns to make adverbs. He was among the last to leave.

The only difference is that this spelling is less common in both American and British English. Among is meant for in the middle or included in a larger group of the people or things. Among and amongst are two varieties of the same preposition.

Among is more common in American English while amongst used almost exclusively in British English. Among is for a lot of items and both start with an A A slightly more nuanced and perhaps updated view is that between is for any one-to-one relationship between discrete and separate things. However one of the main meanings of among in into or through the midst of.

Therefore in most contexts among is the better choice. Or cats have no place amongst the dogs. Surrounded by overlaps with amid.

While amongst is fairly commonthough still rare compared to amongin British Australian and Canadian English it is rare in American English and may even have an archaic ring. Amidst is just a slightly older and chiefly British variant of amid The meaning is the same for both. While amongst is slightly more common in British English than American English among is the preferred word.

We already touched on the difference between between and among when we talked about the difference between among and amongstBut lets take a closer look at these two commonly confused wordsWe might even dispel a grammar myth in the process. Theres a common and oddly persistent belief that between should be used only when there are. Using Amongst in a Sentence.

Denotes a mingling or intermixing with distinct or separable objects. And whilst for subjunctive or conditional purposes. Also among is commonly followed by some plural noun form.

He is among the few who completely understand the subject. Amongst is more common in British English whereas among is more common in American English. When you look out among the crowd you cant.

Heres one case where both amid and among are correct. They divided the money up among their three children. Among is more common in modern writing.

There is no real difference between among and amongst. There are times when amongst just seems to feel more appropriate for example I sat amongst the trees and stared at the stars. Among is for undefined collective uses oftentimes with groups.

So even though amongst sounds like it would be the older of these two words it is actually quite a bit younger than its older brother among. The difference between among and amongst is mainly stylistic. When to Use Among in a Sentence.

Among is also a preposition. Among is the more common variant in American and. Main Difference Among vs.

Amongst may feel more archaic to speakers of American English but among is actually the older word dating back to Old English circa 1000 CE. Americans tend to always use among while in the UK both among and amongst are used. Among is over ten times more common than amongst.

If youre at all interested in grammar then youve probably heard the maxim about among and between. Although both are having the same meaning the frequency of its use is not the same. They can be used interchangeably so choosing one over the other depends on writing style.

Both words are used in the sense in. Denotes a belonging of a person or a thing to a group. Amongst is used as a singular noun phrase and has the same meaning as among whereas the term among is used as plural noun phrase preposition.

In most cases among will come before a plural noun when used in a sentence. And conversely at times among seems appropriate for example He was among many that died in the war. When to Use Between.

Among are both prepositions meaning in the company of or surrounded by. Examples of How to Use Among in a Sentence. A British woman was among the survivors.

A few theories claim that among is more commonly used in American English while British English tends to prefer amongst as a tradition from a past period of the English vocabulary evolution when the suffixes -s and -st were added to several words mostly to obtain new adverbs such as whilst from while. To be among or amongst other nouns is to be the middle to be one of several or to be apart of a particular population. Comparatively you should use among when youre talking about a larger group of things a thing that isnt specific or a thing thats more general in nature.

Denotes a sharing of a common feature in a group. So when should you use amongst vs. Surrounded by in the middle of in at atmosphere of against a background of.

Its practically equal to among. In American English amongst is often considered archaic and pretentious so if your audience is mostly based in the US it might be better to stick with among. It has more senses than amid.

Among Vs Amongst The Easiest Way To Tell The Difference Ink Blog