Question 1

Should I use between or among?

Accepted Answer

The rule most people were taught is that **between** is for two things and **among** is for three or more. That is a useful starting point and an oversimplification.

The more accurate distinction is about **individual versus collective relationships**.

Use **between** when items are being considered individually and distinctly, however many there are. *Trade agreements between the four countries* is correct, because each country has a separate relationship with each other one. *He divided his time between London, Paris and Rome* is correct for the same reason — the destinations are distinct.

Use **among** when something is within a group considered collectively, without distinguishing its members. *The news spread among the crowd. She was among friends. Divide the profits among the shareholders.*

So the deciding question is not how many, but whether you are treating them as individuals or as a mass.

The two-versus-three rule works most of the time simply because two things are almost always considered individually. It fails whenever more than two items have distinct pairwise relationships, which is common.

A related distinction: **among** implies distribution within an undifferentiated group, so *divided between the three children* suggests specific shares while *divided among the three children* suggests a general sharing out.

**Amongst** and **amidst** are variants of *among* and *amid*. They mean exactly the same thing, are more common in British English, and read as slightly more formal or archaic. Neither is wrong; neither adds anything.

*Between you and I* is a separate and genuine error — *between* is a preposition, so it takes *me*.

Question 2

Is it the team is or the team are?

Accepted Answer

Both, depending on which side of the Atlantic you are writing for and what you mean. American English treats collective nouns as singular almost without exception. The team is winning. The government

Question 3

What is the difference between a hyphen, an en dash and an em dash?

Accepted Answer

Three marks of different lengths doing three different jobs. Most writing uses only the first, which is why the others look unfamiliar. Hyphen ( - ) — the shortest, and the one on the keyboard. It

Question 4

What is the difference between farther and further?

Accepted Answer

Farther refers to physical distance. Further refers to degree, extent or additional amount. The station is farther than I thought. (measurable distance) We need to discuss this further. (extent, not

Question 5

Should numbers be written as words or digits?

Accepted Answer

The most widely used convention is to spell out numbers one to nine and use digits from 10 upward. Some style guides set the cut-off at one hundred instead, so the first thing to establish is which

Question 6

When should I use fewer instead of less?

Accepted Answer

Use fewer for things you can count individually, and less for quantities you measure as a mass. Fewer biscuits, less flour. Fewer people, less noise. The test is whether the noun has a sensible

Question 7

What is a language family, and what is a language isolate?

Accepted Answer

A language family is a group of languages descended from a common ancestor. A language isolate is a language with no demonstrable relatives at all. How families are established. Not by similarity —

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