Between Me and You (not!)

Between Me and You (not!)

Remember the great   Beatles tune, “Between Me and You”? Of course you do – don’t you? No?

It would have been a silly title, right? Instead, the name of the song is, appropriately, “From Me to You.”

 

That title proves yet again that the words you select certainly do matter. Today’s lesson compares between/and, which is nearly always used incorrectly, with from/to or in/and, better ways to complete the construction in mind.

In fact, the between/and construction is often totally nonsensical, even though it’s extremely common.

Here is a prime example, and you can find similar errors in just about every edition of every newspaper in the United States:

Between 2011 and 2012, he killed seven owls while hunting.

You may have read that and thought it was perfectly fine, but in fact it’s utter nonsense. The writer does not understand the definition of between. 

When you use between, you are excluding the first and last items you mention. For example, 2 is between 1 and 3. It can’t be part of 1 or part of 3 – it’s between those numbers. Between means what comes immediately after the first item mentioned and immediately before the last item mentioned. Thus, 2 is between 1 and 3. Just as August is between May and November (but certainly not part of those months).

Once we understand the definition of between, we see why the example cited is nonsense. Please tell me what’s between 2011 and 2012 – the year 2011 ½ (with all due apologies to     “Duck Dodgers in the 24th and a Half Century”)??? There is no moment “between” those years. What the writer really means is that in 2011 and 2012 (the time span covering both calendar years), seven owls were hunted.

So why, then, do so many professional writers and editors let such awful constructions go through? It goes back to what I have dubbed Parrot’s Disease, that frightening but totally preventable epidemic of blindly, unthinkingly parroting what we see or hear. Just because something is common doesn’t make it correct. It’s worth reminding everyone again:

PARROT'S DISEASE:  

  Be skeptical and look things up to be sure! Do not trust myths and rumors or repeat things you have seen or heard, no matter how common. This is how such atrocious writing as the examples cited becomes so common. Be uncommon and be sure something you write is correct. Don't just parrot what you read and hear!

The big problem with the way between is commonly used is the attempt to give inclusion to all the items mentioned, when as mentioned the first and last items MUST BE EXCLUDED. Another example:

Between 1921 and 1923, the candidate raised $2 million.

This literally means "in 1922" because that is the only thing between 1921 and 1923. If the writer really means that, of course the sentence should be recast to say simply, “In 1922, the candidate raise $2 million.” 

But of course that isn’t the meaning. The writer is INCLUDING all years in the calculation, meaning that in the three-year span of 1921-23, that much money was raised. 

It’s the wrong use of between. What is needed instead is the from/to construction:

From 1921 to 1923, the candidate raised $2 million.

From/to provides the inclusion the writer is intending to convey. It’s the same thing with the in/and construction.

See, then, if you can spot/correct any errors in these sentences as well:

1) Single positive integers consist of the numbers between 1 and 9.

2)  Between August and September, it rained only once.

3)  Between October and December, he spent 12 weeks in jail.

4)  He worked at McDonald’s between October 1972 and July  1974.

5)  A calendar year consists of the days between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31.

Answers:

1) Again, using between means your choices DO NOT INCLUDE the first and last numbers (1 and 9). That is incorrect. We need to recast it to say “ … the numbers 1-9” or “the numbers from 1 to 9.”

2) There is no such time period – not even in the    Twilight Zone – between August and September, so we need to redo the sentence to say “In August and September ….”

3) Between October and December literally means “in November,” but putting that instead also would be inaccurate because the number of weeks (12) ensures that the jail period started in October and ended in December. So we must reword it to “From October to December …”

4) You can’t know for 100% certainty, but who goes around using months they DIDN’T WORK in such a computation? I’d check with the writer to be sure, but it’s extremely likely the employee started working in October 1972 and left sometime during the month of July in 1974. So the sentence should read like this: “ … from October 1972 to July 1974.”

5) The word between again would mean to not count the first and last items, and we all know Jan. 1 and Dec. 31 are indeed part of the   calendar year (the first day and the last day). Therefore, the corrected version would be A calendar year consists of the days from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31.

Think of between as literally and/or physically denoting space. The following examples Merriam Webster cites for the correct use of between are all good ones, and you can discern a distance in all of them, a distance separating the first item from the last:

1.   The ball rolled between the desk and the wall.

2.   He stood between his mother and his father.

3.   The office has two desks with a table between them.

4.   They put up a fence between their house and their neighbor's house.

5.   There are fences between all the houses.

6.   If you want to lose weight, you shouldn't eat between meals.

7.   Between bites of food, they talked to their teacher.

8.   The two days between Monday and Thursday are Tuesday and Wednesday.

9.   We should arrive between 9 and 10 o'clock.

You get no such distance when you wrongly try to use between to suggest inclusion.

If you intend to include the first and last items mentioned, you must use from/to or in/and:

In January and February, it snowed six times.

Pick a number from 1 to 9 (meaning 1-9 are the   choices, not 2-8).

In 2011 and 2012, he was arrested four times (arrested four times during that two-year span).

He was hospitalized from July (he was admitted that month) to November (he was released during that month).

It's time to wrap it up.
 

My next post will deal with the widespread misuse of too. It would be too bad if you missed that one, so try to read that one, too. Stay tuned ...