Whats the Difference between AMONG and BETWEEN Basic English Grammar

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hi everybody welcome back to ask Alisha

the weekly series where you ask me

questions and I answer them

maybe first question this week comes

from chin hi chin chin says hi Alicia

what is the difference between prior to

something and before something Thanks

generally prior to something sounds more

formal than before something so for

example I met the director prior to the

conference and I met the director before

the conference so before the conference

sounds much more casual sounds much more

conversational than prior to the

conference prior to sounds much more

businesslike we might see this in

written documents like contracts or

agreements that kind of thing you might

also see it in like formal business

notes like meeting minutes that kind of

thing but they have the same meaning

just slightly different feels so I hope

that this helps you thanks for the

question let’s move on to your next

question next question comes from

Yoshitaka horikoshi hi again yes taka

Yoshitaka says hi Alicia I watched the

movie Zootopia I have a question what is

the difference in nuance between give in

and give up yeah a nice question to give

in means to finally agree to something

so we use this in situations where

someone has like asked us for something

many many times or like we are pushed or

like pressured to do something so even

if there’s not a request if we have like

a strong feeling like a craving for

something or a strong desire to do

something and we finally decide to do it

or we finally agree to something someone

has been asking of us we can use give in

to describe that I gave in and bought my

kids a dog don’t give in to your

late-night cravings for food so you’ll

notice in these examples especially in

the first example we don’t talk about

how someone has been asking us for

something for a long time just choosing

to use the phrasal verb give in shows

that there has been like repeated

requests

in the past so give in has this meaning

of to finally agree to something to give

up however means to finally quit

something to finally stop doing

something there are actually two ways to

use to give up so we use to give up with

to give up on and just to give up

so some examples I gave up on my blog

and started gardening this year I want

to give up smoking okay so we see these

two patterns to give up on something and

just to give up something so when we

give up on something it’s usually

something we had like an expectation for

in my example sentence it was I gave up

on my blog in this case like I had some

kind of expectation I wanted my blog to

be great there I wanted to make

something interesting but I couldn’t or

I decided to stop after a long period of

trying without this on though like I

gave up smoking or I want to give up

smoking it means I want to stop that

thing and it’s usually for like a bad

habit or something that’s kind of

unhealthy for us so I like to give up

junk food or to give up drinking or like

in my example to give up smoking so

these are things that maybe we do as bad

habits and we want to stop so to give up

something or to give up on something is

to finally quit something after a long

time to give in however refers to

finally agreeing to something so there

are very subtle but important

differences between these two phrasal

verbs so I hope that that helps you

thanks very much for the question let’s

move on to your next question next

question comes from Ari hi Ari ari says

how can we use though at the beginning

of a sentence does it have the same

meaning as when it’s at the end of a

sentence yes the meaning is the same

let’s compare with a few examples though

he had no money he went shoe shopping

he went shoe shopping though he had no

money he had no money he went shoe

shopping though ok so the first two

examples here are quite formal sounding

especially the first one so starting

with the word though at the beginning of

the sentence

sounds quite formal though he had no

money he went shoe shopping

this is probably a sentence we would not

use in everyday conversation it sounds

very polite very formal the second

sentence using though to connect these

two ideas at the middle sounds a little

bit more casual but still has a polite

feel in general though does sound a bit

more polite so in the last example

sentence we see though at the end of a

sentence so this is a very common

position for though in everyday speech

you may also see though shortened to th0

especially in like texts and like social

media posts so people put tho in this

position a lot for very casual

expressions so to answer your question

the meaning remains the same it has the

same function it just sounds a little

bit more casual to put it at the end of

a sentence I hope that this helps you

thanks very much for the question

ok let’s move on to your next question

next question comes from Asif Mahmud hi

us if Asif says what is the difference

between among and between for example

according to your video the difference

between look watch and see the sentence

is correct but how ok so yes we can use

between for more than two objects but

the object should belong to the same

category so in that example in the video

title example look watch and see those

are three verbs and they all have like

similar meanings so those verbs together

form kind of like a category we can

understand that they’re somehow similar

or somehow related if though I decided

to make a statement or make a sentence

like what’s the difference between cat

singing and luxury it’s like what those

things they don’t belong to any category

their words yes but they’re not verbs

they’re not mounds they’re not

adjectives they don’t seem to have any

relationship it would sound really

strange so we use difference between

when we’re talking about things that

kind of belong to the same group or the

same category and we use between when we

list those things individually so in the

video example we list

look watch and see so we know each item

that we’re going to talk about there we

use among in more formal situations and

we use it when we’re talking about like

one individual like one person or one

object that’s inside or like in a

situation where they’re surrounded by

many other objects that are all the same

so for example a great one would be like

we walked among the trees so in that

example there are lots and lots of trees

and we are different we as people in

this situation are walking among them so

there’s something different that’s like

inside this kind of homogeneous which

means everything is the same condition

so here you’ll also notice that with

among we’re using an uncountable noun in

the plural form we’re not talking about

individual trees we’re using trees there

so it’s kind of like one group of things

we’re not focusing on the individuals

necessarily there are many individuals

yes but we want to focus on the group

let’s look at one more example please

choose from among these options so here

we see options in the plural form so

that means there are many different

options and we want to express rather

formally that there are many different

things for someone to choose from so

when we use among keep in mind it’s used

with formal situations more formal

situations kind of polite ER speech we

use it with uncountable nouns and we

tend to refer to like a group of things

so something that we can understand us

being in a group when we’re using

between we’re talking about things that

belong to the same category and we want

to focus on the individual parts of

those things in the category so I hope

that this helps answer your question

there will also be a whiteboard video

about the differences between among and

amid and between out on the channel soon

so please keep an eye out for that

thanks very much for your question okay

let’s move along to the next question

next question comes from Jenna d hi

Jenna D Jenna G says is there a

difference between because of and due to

in meaning

usage would you please explain yeah

because of can sound a bit rougher

especially if you’re saying because of

you so for example we lost the game

because of you or because of you were

late to the airport so that can sound

really aggressive

so because of sometimes sounds quite

rough so we might use it very carefully

in interpersonal situations like when

we’re talking to other people and like

blaming someone for something it can

sound aggressive do - on the other hand

sounds much more polite it sounds more

like a statement of fact so for example

due to rain today’s event has been

cancelled our success was due to our

team’s hard work

so due to sounds more like a positive

version of because of so because of can

have this kind of rough feel so if

you’re ever not sure you can say due to

there’s another expression which is

thanks to as well so thanks to expresses

your appreciation if you want to see a

few more example sentences and some

other ways to use these expressions you

can check out the because of vs. thanks

to video that’s on the YouTube channel

as well so I hope that this helps answer

your question thanks very much for

sending it ok that’s everything that I

have for this week so thank you as

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