While/Whilst
- Thread starter cleanbluesky
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robmiller said:He knows. He was trying to use that example to demonstrate that "whilst" and "while" aren't interchangeable, but "whilst" interchangeable with the conjunctional form of "while" and not the noun
Ok, I probably should have read the thread, I hate it when people post and dont read the thread!
I've used that in the past (from South Yorkshire, so it seems it's a local thing) and I'm probably still guilty of doing so occasionally, though I don't notice myself doing it.One More Solo said:Yorkshire. "While" means "until" here, though you'd never catch me using it.
Earlier, whilst walking to the shops, I tripped over a dog turd.
I tripped over a dog turd earlier whilst walking to the shops.
Whilst walking to the shops earlier I tripped over a dog turd.
Whilst walking to the dog turd earlier I tripped over the shops.
I tripped over a dog turd earlier whilst walking to the shops.
Whilst walking to the shops earlier I tripped over a dog turd.
Whilst walking to the dog turd earlier I tripped over the shops.
OvertoneBliss said:
It seems to be more suited to the past tense as you have demonstrated. This is more evident with a present tense statement like,
"While I continue to..."
Whereas "Whilst I continue to..." doesn't sound quite right.
Scuzi said:
Yeh, I noticed that whilst (haha) writing it.
English though is a very flexible language which is one of the reasons why it's so difficult for foreigners to learn. They can learn one past tense sentence and memorise it in relation to the same sentence in their own language, but when we start swapping words around, adding commas or using olde variants of current 'more accepted' words, they just tend to get lost.
This is one reason why American English is taught as the standard and accepted variation of English in most parts of the world. It helps them learn, but it dumbs down and restricts our language a little, in my opinion, and this is not good. Language is (or can be, at least) an art, and any restriction in any art form is not a good thing.
But, all that is way off-topic.
Soldato
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Personally I would always use while in the middle of a sentence and whilst at the beginning.
e.g.
Whilst that may be true, I couldn't possibly comment.
I was watching TV while I did my ironing.
I'm not saying that's correct, just how I use them. I do get very fed up with MS Word telling me that "whilst" is archaic. I'm not that old!
e.g.
Whilst that may be true, I couldn't possibly comment.
I was watching TV while I did my ironing.
I'm not saying that's correct, just how I use them. I do get very fed up with MS Word telling me that "whilst" is archaic. I'm not that old!