How do you say at the middle of a month when giving instructions or explanations?

Question

In my first language, we have a preposition which simply means "at the middle of" and we use that when talking about months. Is it grammatically or idiomatically correct to say

1. Unfortunately, the next available visit-time is amidst the June.
2. Unfortunately, there is no available visit-time until the midst of June.
3. Unfortunately, the next available visit-time is at the middle of June.

Personally, I think they sound odd because as I checked the usage of midst, it is usually used to describe something located among the other things, for example, amidst the derbies. I think this paraphrase also holds for the midst (of) and middle

So, in similar context, how do you say at the middle of a month in English?

Answer 1

I would use:

• Unfortunately, the next available visit-time is in the middle of June.
• Unfortunately, the next available visit-time isn't until mid-June.
• Unfortunately, there is no available visit-time until the middle of June.

I would also probably say appointment, or even just time, instead of visit-time, since it will likely be clear from context that the time is for visiting.

You are right about amidst and midst. The same goes for amid, which sounds less literary to me.

However, in the middle of is fine and much more common. Though it can be used in many of the same places as amid, amidst, and midst, it isn't limited to the situations you describe — it can also be used to describe location in a single unit of time or a single thing/place. For example, middle can be used in these sentences but the other words can't:

• They were sitting in the middle of the room.
• Drill a hole in the middle of that board.
• Alex was in the middle of final exams and wasn't sleeping well.
• The sun was shining in the middle of the afternoon when I got a knock on my door.
• Jordan woke up in the middle of a strange forest.
  • Jordan woke up in the middle of a group of strange trees.
  • Jordan woke up amidst strange trees in a dark forest.
  • Literary or poetic: Jordan woke up amidst a forest.
  • Jordan woke up amid a forest of pine trees.
• In the middle of the last song, the lip-sync track suddenly stopped playing.
• He's leaving in the middle of next month.

Mid-June is also perfectly acceptable.

Answer 2

Mostly ditto @HoaLongTam. Let me add:

"Amid" and "amidst" may sound like "middle", but they don't mean the same thing.

"Middle" means "center", or half way between extremes. If we had a six-foot long table and I told you to put the flowers in the "middle", I'd expect you to put them at about the three-foot mark.

But "amid" or "amidst" means "in the group", "surrounded by". If I said, "Amidst all the tall men was one short man", I mean that there is a group of tall men, but somewhere in that group is one short man.

"Amidst" does not imply "middle". If I said, "Amidst all the hot days in July there was one very cold day", I mean that most of the days in July were hot, but one day in there was cold. I am not implying in any way that the cold day was in the middle of the month, i.e. about the 15th. It could have been the 1st.

All that said, what you want is "in the middle of". Or as HoaLongTam said, "mid-June".