Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[dreamshow]

Dear teacher,
I�m a student from Taiwan.
I want to know what the differences are between �when� and �while�.
If I want to express �at the same time�, in this situation, are they the same? Can I use any of them in this situation?
Is there any example for the situation they are the same and they are not the same?
Thanks for your response!
by dreamshow

[pugachevV]

If you want to express at the same time as, you use while.
Peter was playing chess while Jim was playing football.
This means that Peter was playing chess at the same time as Jim was playing football.
While can also indicate a contrast. In that case the sentence means that Peter was playing chess, whereas Jim was playing football.

If you say, Peter was playing chess when Jim was playing football It means that Peter was playing chess at or during the time that Jim was playing football, or whenever Jim was playing football, or at any time that Jim was playing football.

As you can see, they are very close in meaning, but not quite identical.

[dreamshow]

Dear teacher,
Thank you for your response and examples.
I still think that when and while are difficult to distinguish, but by those examples, I think I had got some points.
Thank you very much
by dreamshow