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Meantime / meanwhile

General English Grammar & Vocabulary,... » ESL General English Grammar Questions

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Anonymous, 1 yr 35 days ago
This is true, but meantime can absolutely NOT be used by itself at the beginning of a sentence, so it is not at all interchangeable with meanwhile in that case.  You would never say:

"Meantime, I was looking around for something to do". 

"In the meantime" must be used in this case for the sentence to have any meaning. 
Anonymous, 1 yr 35 days ago
I certainly do sometimes say (in colloquial English):

"Meantime, take care of yourself.."

So, I profoundly disagree with your prescriptive comments. (;)) Wink
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Anonymous, 1 yr 14 days ago
You are incorrect.
You could say "Meanwhile, take care of yourself" or "In the meantime, take care of yourself"

You cannot start a sentence with "meantime"
Anonymous, 240 days ago

Anonymous
“You are incorrect.
You could say "Meanwhile, take care of yourself" or "In the meantime, take care of yourself"

You cannot start a sentence with "meantime"

”

 Television and radio announcers are doing this all the time lately. It drives me crazy.


Anonymous, 186 days ago
Awesome Example - Thanks Mike!
Mike in Japan  +  744956 Sun, 24 May 09 05:04 AM
You are welcome. I do have to confess that I got a little confused reading my old answer. Maybe my brain is shrinking.
Mike in Japan
Joined on Tue, Aug 19 2003
Senior Member 4,371
I do like to be beside the seaside
Anonymous, 43 days ago
Basically,


meanwhile is an adverb used to modify the whole sentence.

meantime is a noun that means pretty much the same thing.


Sometimes people say 'in the meanwhile' but this is usually considered wrong. 


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