(Text-only version of Quirks of English)

Quirks of English

(for those who speak English as their second language or who just want to improve their writing)

Stuck in the Middle

-amid, among, amidst, amongst, between, midst-

Are we doomed to perish amidst a miry grammar-bog, amongst grammatical philistines?

Ordinarily, there is no pressing need to ever use amidst and amongst. They are considered Briticisms or archaisms. For American writing, unless you want to enter a Shakespeare write-alike contest, just use amid or among.

Midst, although it sounds similar, is another matter:

1. The interior or central part or point¹
   In the very midst of the forest
2. A position of proximity to the members of a group¹
   There's a traitor in our midst!
3. The condition of being surrounded or beset¹
   In the midst of troubles
4. A period of time about the middle of a continuing act or condition¹
   In the midst of the concluding presentation, he stood up and criticized the presenter's reasoning.

   (Another way to say the same thing would be he stood up and criticized the presenter's reasoning in the middle of the presentation. (In the middle can often be dropped into a sentence when you're not sure exactly which word should be used, although it has a somewhat colloquial tone.)

Though specialized, these idiomatic meanings of midst are still very much alive in both American and British English today.

The real usage challenge lies with amid, among, and between. Although dictionaries and thesauri give these three as synonyms of each other, there are some subtle differences. One eminent guide groups them into two usage pairs, contrasting amid with among, and among with between.

In the first pair, amid (a synonym for "in the midst of") is used to indicate things that are not counted:

Seashells were found amid the sands of the beach.

Amid the waves of the ocean, swimmers and floaters bobbed up and down.

Amid the buttercups, bees fluttered.

Among stands among countable items:

Among the poets that we remember today, he is considered the greatest.

Among the many subjects that students are required to study, writing is one of the most important.

Rules for the second pair are less clear cut. Strictly speaking, among is used for a relationship concerning three or more entities. There is an old rule that between is supposed to be used for only two things or persons, but many authorities question this rule's validity.

Between can and should be used to show a close relationship between a whole list of separate things, as long as each is considered individually:

Between doing the shopping, burping the baby, weeding the tomatoes, solving third-order differential equations, scrubbing the bathroom, and rattling those pots and pans, I never get to see Days of Our Lives!

The argument between Jill, Joe, Jake, and Jocelyn warmed up in proportion to the brandy consumed.

But when treating a group as a collective unit, the case is different:

The debate among participants at the conference waxed hot despite the chilling glare of the moderator.

Among is also used to mean "in company or association with" or "in the number or class of":

She spends most of her time her time among strangers.

He should not be counted among the greatest of poets.

Here are some helpful idioms to keep in mind:

With "to choose," use between.

With "to choose from," use among.

With "to count," use among.

Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (Tenth Edition).

Test yourself.

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