a mix of / a mix between

[oxyredox]

Hi everyone,

I was just wondering if there was any difference between "a mix of" and "a mix between".
I'm not a native speaker but I have a strange feeling about "a mix between"... like it's very widely used but not as proper as "a mix of".

What do you natives say ?

 

[lucas-sp]

What are you mixing? The appropriateness of "a mix between..." will depend on what follows "between" in the particular sentence you're thinking about.

 

[Hau Ruck]

You would need to provide example sentences of each. There are times you would use one or the other; and times that both could be used.

Context and examples are key here.

 

[oxyredox]

well it was just a general question !
I heard someone talk about a rock band and say "AUSTERLITZ style is a subtle mix between avant-garde and mainstream attitude". It sounded weird to me but I could'nt explain why, so I thought maybe the problem came "of" vs "between" ;-)

Is it correct ?

 

[Hau Ruck]

"Between" would be ok here because there are only two things. It is basically saying that the mix is somewhere between the two. A little bit of avant-garde and a little bit of mainstream attitude. If there were a "middle" of the two, AUSTERLITZ would fall around there.
I suspect that it would be incorrect to say "mix between" when referring to 3 or more comparisons.
Such as:
"AUSTERLITZ style is a subtle mix between avant-garde, mainstream attitude and classical attitude".

I would suspect, however, that you could say, ""AUSTERLITZ style is a subtle mix of avant-garde, mainstream attitude and classical attitude".

 

[oxyredox]

ok that's clearer now.

I think I was confused because I had in mind the cooking image of flour, sugar, butter and eggs mixed together to form something new in which you can't distinguish anything...
Whereas in this context both ideas live side by side without merging.

Would you agree that "mix of" implies merging and "mix between" not merging ?

 

[Hau Ruck]

Yes and no. We use both. Idiomatically it can mean either depending on context.

If you said that your thoughts were a mix of rational and irrational ideas, I'd understand that they are not really "merged".
If you said that the cake batter was a mixture of flour, sugar, butter and eggs, I would understand that they were merged.

We use either pretty loosely.

 

[oxyredox]

thanks !

We use either pretty loosely.

that's something I can easily do !