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Will you please explain the difference between

1.Between the students

2.amongst the students

3.Between them vs Among them

As a non-native english person i didn't distinguish between above statements. Thanks for your reply.

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  • "The negotiation between the students and the faculty was at a standstill"; "there is a liar among the students". I wrote more here.
    – ryang
    Commented Mar 8 at 7:49

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In style guides, you will find the recommendation that you use "between" for two people and "among" for more than two. Notice the "tween" which is ultimately from a word meaning "two-each"

But this is a style rule, and frequently broken in natural dialogue, especially when you can divide the group of more-than-two into two parts:

We share lots of secrets between me and my friends.

(the two parts are "me" and "my friends", even though there are more than two people)

Between is literally applicable only to two objects; but it may be and commonly is used of more than two where they are spoken of distributively, or so that they can be thought of as divided into two parts or categories, or with reference to the action or being of each individually as compared with that of any other or all the others. When more than two objects are spoken of collectively or in divisibly, among is the proper word. [Century Dictionary]

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