The difference between "between" and "in between" mainly lies in their grammatical usage and context:
- Between is usually followed by something and indicates a position or relationship involving two or more distinct entities or points. For example, "I am sitting between these two people" means you are physically located in the middle of two individuals. It can also be used with times and places, such as "between 8 am and 5 pm" or "between New York and Boston"
- In between is often used without a following noun and typically refers to something existing in the middle or a space separating two things. It is frequently used in relation to time or abstract concepts. For example, "I have breakfast at seven and lunch at 12 with nothing in between" means there is no event or activity occurring in the time gap separating breakfast and lunch
In summary, "between" is a preposition that requires an object, while "in between" functions more adverbially to denote the middle space or interval without necessarily being followed by a noun
. Additionally, "between" is more formal and common in writing, while "in between" is often used in conversational English to emphasize the middle position or interval
