The Sawatdee Anal Retentive Poll #1

[Smiles]

Had the occasion this morning to go back and edit a post of mine ... twice. I do this fairly frequently, almost exclusively for a self-discovered grammatical or spelling mistake: I just can't stand them in my own posts, though strangely I have no knee-jerk criticisms when other posters do it, and easily accept them as being part of the message board game. (Except for when Baziel is concerned ... that's a whole other issue :blackeye: But forget that.)

So this morning I changed (as noted) "swog" to "slog" ... there being no such word as "swog" as far as I know. And secondly, I changed "amongst" to "among" ... because the former just didn't sound right.

But in fact, I don't know whether it actually needed to be changed. So here's the Sawatdee Anal Retentive question #1: do you use "amongst" and "among" interchangeably no matter the sentence context? Do you use one or the other depending on a specific context? Or do you use just one all the time . . . presumably "among"?

I should add that I Googled this burning question and came up with a number of anally retentive websites, but please don't let the results influence your vote.
The heavy consensus came down on the side that in modern English it is quite acceptable to use the two words interchangeably. There was an interesting comment that using the word 'amongst' denoted a certain minor pretentiousness in some contexts, but that at any rate, it's use has a rather "dusty-genteel" sound to it.

Cheers ...

[Bob]

Way toooooooooo much time on your hands, Khun Dawit. We should be downing a gazillion Singhas instead?

[dave_tf-old]

Since I'm not really sure what sentence context might call for one over the other, I use both on a whim, especially when feeling minorly pretentious.

Amongst has 7 letters, and among only 5 so amongst is superior, mathematically speaking.

In real life, I tend to communicate with hand gestures, grunts and squeaks, but posting amongst such obvious (and overly-obvious) intellectual giants as inhabit this board tends to make me want to lift myself from among the proletariat whether I have that ability or not.

Amongst the problems of spending too much time in Hua Hin is an obsession with grammar. A well known poster on this board is among the sufferers.

[Smiles]

Since I'm not really sure what sentence context might call for one over the other, I use both on a whim, especially when feeling minorly pretentious.

"among or amongst"

Some people make a distinction between these, using amongst with verbs that imply movement: we stood among the trees but: we walked amongst the trees; the money was shared out amongst the members. There is no need to do so; either form can be used in any context.."

http://www.tiscali.co.uk/reference/dict ... 81551.html (http://www.tiscali.co.uk/reference/dictionaries/english/data/d0081551.html)

Cheers ...

[catawampuscat]

Just use (sic) when you write it.. My good friend Jomtien told me that was the way to go and it was foolproof or was that
foolhardy?

I would like to nominate smiles latest poll for a yuk yuk award as the worst poll of the new century and that includes raksiam's 300 polls..
I choose 300 because I liked the hot Spartan bods in the movie of the same name..
I wonder if smiles would agree to the nomination
for worst poll.... umm I guess I have far too much free time on my hands as well.. :cat: