Commonly Confused Words in English: DURING & WHILE
We say “During the lesson…” but “While I was studying…” Find out why in this English lesson.
Take an English quiz based on this lesson!
Test your understanding of the English lesson by answering these questions. You will get the answers and your score at the end of the quiz.
JamesESL
RebeccaESL
EnglishLessons4U
ValenESL
AlexESL
Saturday, April 25th 2009
I like this teacher, because her explaination is too much clear!!!!
Thank you Rebecca
Saturday, April 25th 2009
Thank you very much for you lesson.
I don’t understand why in sentence “Every night, Jason fall asleep ___watching television” the answer is while because I think in this case “watching television” is a noun.
please! explain to me
I will try to solve your doubt, I am not 100% sure, so If I am wrong sorry, but in that case, watching television -> “watching” is the act of to watch television, so it’s a verb. A noun is a Person, Place or Thing.Only television is the noun.
Thanks, Marcos. You’re right! Good job!
Tuesday, November 3rd 2009
Thanking you mame for your clear teaching
Saturday, April 25th 2009
Dear Rebecca,
I would like that you write while you explain.
Thanks a lot.
Sincerely.
Hector.
Will try and do that. Thanks.
Monday, April 27th 2009
i like you ma’am..,^_^
Monday, April 27th 2009
please ,write your solucion,thanks
Tuesday, April 28th 2009
I like the way your teach, it will help me to improve my English.Thank you~~^^
Very nice lesson, just a question,
on the fourth quiz question , I put
“During” the cake was baking, Diane washed the dishes.
And on the score said that I was wrong, but Isn’t cake a noun?
So why is that wrong? Maybe because it was the beggining of the sentence…
Thanks
Friday, May 1st 2009
Dear Marco,
I think I can help you out. And to Rebecca, thanks for making these videos.
It really helps to know the parts of speech when trying to understand English. During is a preposition; that’s why nouns are usually following. While on the other hand is usually a conjunction. So what do you do if you find yourself unsure of which word to use? Plug in the definition and see if the sentence still makes sense. Here are some definitions (from Marriam Webster’s online dictionary:
During – Prepostion – throughout the duration of
While – Conjunction – during the time that
Now to use your example
During/While the cake was baking, Diane washed the dishes.
So plug in the definitions and see which one makes better sense…
1. Throughout the duration of the cake was baking, Diane washed the dishes.
or
2. During the time that the cake was baking, Diane washed the dishes.
Which one makes more sense? To me, “duration of the cake,” seems a little odd but “during the time that the cake was baking,” while long, still makes sense. Since this is the definition of “while,” “while” would be the better word to use here.
While not 100% foolproof, the technique can help you out most of the time.
Bill Ralens
Thanks, Bill, for your detailed explanation.
Good teacher . From Brazil
Rebecca,thanks a lot for your help.I think that your teaching is very good!
Thanks for your lessons. I’m very grateful in this lesson. Now I know how I can say correct during and while. Thank you very much Rebecca.
great job! thanks
Friday, June 12th 2009
this was great. I greatly enjoyed it.
Saturday, June 20th 2009
sorry!!!!!
but it was bad and very confused
Lian
Thank you.
thank u but ı want to watch your videos,Iam new here ı thınk ı couldnt find :(please help me
What problem are you having exactly?
Thanks to everyone for your feedback. Glad I could help most of you.
Monday, June 29th 2009
you lesson is easy to undetstand, but it is better if you write more; I aprriciate your effort. thanhks so much
Will keep that in mind. Thanks.
Thank you
Thanks to all for your feedback.
hi Rebeccaesl, thank you very much .your video is short ,but it is very interesting.
Saturday, September 5th 2009
Thank you, Rebecca. Very easy to understand for me. Test 100%!
Sunday, September 6th 2009
Thank you, Rebecca.
Monday, September 7th 2009
thank you,it was simple and great.
Tuesday, September 29th 2009
Thank you so much, it’s realy great watching and listening your video lessons.
helo Rebecca
Thank you so much, your way of teaching is very nice like you, may i have your skyype address, i would like to learn english like u speak , thanks you very much.
Durvila
You may contact me at our school email:
info@diplomatschool.com
Thanks.
Monday, October 5th 2009
Hi Rebecca,
thank you for your effort on teaching English (and to the rest of the team as well)! It helps me a lot to kind of proceed my knowledge about the English language. One question about this video is remaining: I’ve heard about ‘whilst’ in some cases. So how can I use this in a proper way?
“Whilst” is not used very often anymore, but in essence it is used in the same way as the word “while”.
He knocked on the door whilst I was cooking.
Whilst cleaning, look out for my keys. I can’t find them.
My best wishes to you.
Saturday, October 10th 2009
Mam, you teach very comprehensively. I have little confusion in using of could have and would have. Could you please guide me. Regards
Saturday, October 17th 2009
Hi Rebecca,
Congratulations for your video-class. The best. Please, could you
write during your explanation?
Thank you very much.
Sunday, October 25th 2009
mam your way of teaching is very sweet.Thanks
Thanks to all for you feedback.
Hello,
I thought I will not understand but I have got 100 in quiz.
It made me very happy. Thank you for excelent explanations.
I am your personal fan, please stay with your students.
Silvia Czech Rep.
Sunday, December 20th 2009
Hi RebeccaESL,
I am so glad from you an from your related teems. you all great teachers for me and for all those watch your lessons.
I wish good chance for you and form your friends.
Thanks so much,
Faizullah Faizan
Kabul Afghanistan
(L)
Thursday, December 24th 2009
thanks a lot first i have on quation is while is look like same meaning of when is i m right on no thanks again
Tuesday, January 12th 2010
Mam thank you very much for your help. I have watched your videos on you tube.
Sunday, January 24th 2010
i like the way you teaching………………………………………… while i listened to you………… i have nothing to say……………
Thursday, February 4th 2010
Excellent! Great! You remove all my confusions in these case. Thanks a lot. Please keep on these efforts for the sake of large community of students who likes a teacher like you.
Friday, February 19th 2010
hi, thank you for your all help.best wishes for you.
Thanks Rebecca