between you and me
Just us two
Between you and me signals that what follows is confidential or candid: Between you and me, I think he's making a mistake.
The phrase frames information as shared privately, even when the "secret" is mild.
Prescriptivists insist on this form over "between you and I," since prepositions take object pronouns—though the latter is common in speech.
- secrecyPractice of hiding information
- hush-hushHighly confidential matter
- keep it quietMaintain secrecy about something
- discretionCareful judgment in speech
- trustConfidence in another
confidentiality · for your ears only · clandestine · mutuality · covert · private · in confidence · sotto voce · behind closed doors · intimacy · exclusive · understanding · rapport · trustworthiness · pillow talk · heart to heart · man to man · reserved
audience/disclosure scope
between you and meon the record
Openly stated, quotable
publicly · out in the open · common knowledge · in public · broadcast