between each chair/the chairs

Hi Contrex

Are you saying '... between the chairs' is wrong?

Thanks.

Leave a space of two centimetres between each chair/the chairs.

Unfortunately, I cannot agree with JTT that either will do. Nothing can be "between" one (each) chair. The word "between" as used here means "in or into the space which separates two places, people or objects".

You could talk of leaving a space of a certain size between each chair and its neighbour, or between each chair and the next, or between each pair of chairs.

Kenneth G. Wilson (1923"). The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993.

between each, between every

Between can be followed by a singular noun (He changed his shirt between every inning), but this use is idiomatic, appropriate at the Conversational and Informal levels, rather than at the Oratorical and the Formal, which always prefer the full logic of between with plural nouns (between innings) or the more explicit after each inning.

http://www.bartleby.com/68/29/829.html

this use is idiomatic, appropriate at the Conversational and Informal levels, rather than at the Oratorical and the Formal

So if enough people are wrong, they're right?

I just think that answering a "right/wrong?" question with a "you can use both" response, ...

just because the ungrammatical, informal choice is widely tolerated in certain parts of the world, is not helpful. We are here to help the questioner, not to show off.