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 While vs when?15 replies Forums · General English Grammar & Vocabulary, Listening & Speaking · General English Grammar Questions 1 2 Hi again  Could you tell me what is the difference between "while" and "when"? Can I use them interchangeably, e.g "While/While I was in Italy I went to see Alessandro." Thank you. Full Member445 MagdaHi againHi Magda You can choose either one of your whiles. More seriously, while is often used to refer to long-lasting action:The phone rang while/when I was taking a bath. But: I bumped into an old friend when I turned a corner. ( It doesn't take you a long time to turn a corner.) Cheers CB Teo: *While I went out, it was raining. -- unacceptable When I went out, it was raining. -- acceptable While it was raining, I went out. -- acceptable When it was raining, I went out. – also acceptable ?While it was raining, I was going out. -- questionable ?When it was raining, I was going out.-- questionable Comments: While and when are very often used in sentences that have both the past progressive and simple past tenses. When this happens, while refers only to a (comparatively) long action, but when can refer to either a (comparatively) long or short action. In these situations, the short action interrupts the long action (which began before the short action happened). In the first example, went out is a shorter action than was raining, so when should be used, not while. In the third and fourth examples, both while and when are possible, since when can refer to both (comparatively) long actions and (comparatively) short ones and while is appropriate with (comparatively) long actions only. The last two examples are grammatical, but probably not logical. They mean that for the entire period of time that it was raining, you were going out. It's much more logical that "go out" is short, while "rain" is long. For that reason, having two past progressive verbs doesn't seem logical. Dennis Oliver Estrella Mountain Community College Avondale, Arizona U.S.A. They can have the same meaning if one or both of the actions is/are long. However, if both actions are short, we use "when." e.g. When/While I was eating dinner, I was watching TV. When/While I was watching TV, I threw up! When I threw up, I dropped my fork. I hope this helps. Mike We prefer when to refer to ages and periods of life. When I was a child we lived in London. -- acceptable *While I was a child we lived in London. -- unacceptable His parents died when he was twelve. -- acceptable *His parents died while he was twelve. -- unacceptable Michael Swan Contributing Member1,620 Magda: Your confusion seems to stem from the fact that you seem to assume that when=at when in effect it can also mean: when=while, during that time as shown at 1 here: ------------ when Function: conjunction 1 a : at or during the time that : WHILE<on one occasion, when a boy, I went fishing with three other boys -- W.J.Reilly> <I could not say "Amen!" when they did say "God bless us!" -- Shakespeare> b : just after the moment that <please stop writing when the bell rings> <went back to his old job when the war ended> c : at any and every time that <when he listens to music, he falls asleep> ----------- Veteran Member11,673  Marius HancuMagda:Hi Marius This is really none of my business but in Magda's native language (at least I assume that Swedish is her native language) there is a conjuction that covers the temporal meanings of both when and while. The word is när, and incidentally in my mother tongue (Finnish) there is a similar word (kun). Understandably, there may be problems when we have to choose between two English words even though we can manage with just one in our own languages. Cheers CB   Cool BreezeHi Cool BreezeMarius HancuMagda:Hi Marius that's why I find the usage while/when sometimes problematic. I wish I could speak English as you do! Best regards, Magda Show more
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