among
part of speech
preposition
meaning for a pupil
1) Among means in the middle of a group: a house among the trees. tree →
2) Among means shared with each person of a group: shared among three friends. tree →
3) Among means being one of a group: she is among the best runners. tree →
sense in the lessons
sharing a total out to a number of people («shared equally among 3 friends» = divide by 3); in everyday life «among friends», «among the trees», «among other things»; in science «among mammals, whales are the biggest»
examples
- 12 cookies are shared equally among 3 friends. How many cookies does each friend get? tree →
- Mr Lee shares 30 pencils among 6 pupils. tree →
- 24 grapes are split among 4 children. tree →
- The rabbit hid among the tall grass. tree →
- Among all the fruits, I like mangoes best. tree →
- The prize money was divided among the four winners. tree →
- She was among the first to arrive. tree →
- He searched among the shavings--no one! tree →
note
«shared among N» names how many shares there are: divide the total by N. Trap: «one of the books among them» does not share anything. Teachers often say «among» for three or more and «between» for two, though «between» is also used for more.
In the corpora
- Green algae grow in a sloth's fur and help to hide it among the leaves.
- A coyote can run at about 65 km per hour, and coyotes are among the real predators of roadrunners.
- Emperor penguins find their partners and chicks among thousands of others by recognising their calls.
- Each chick has its own voice, and its parents recognise it among thousands of others in a noisy colony.
- Green algae grow in sloth fur and give camouflage among leaves, and moths live in the fur too.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «among» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.