As, when, while

Question

Hello everybody,Once I asked it but I didn't get explanation (I got solutions) about it therefore I try it again.We have these three sentences:... Paul was trying to ring them, nobody answered the phone.... Pat was coming downstairs, she heard a shot.... my father was watching TV, I was swotting the English words.We can use the following conjunctions to fill the gaps: 'as', 'when', 'while'.I would like to know the possibilities (in every sentence) with explanations. I know, maybe it is an enormous amount of possibilities, but I would really appreciate these explanations. I can't find this in grammar books.I have the following suspicions (and nothing else, just suspicions):- we can use 'when' if the two action follow each other (their time periods don't include a common part).- we can use 'while' when the two actions are time parallel (they have the same time period or the period of the shorter action is included in the period of the longer)- we can use 'as', when the two actions are time parallel (they have the same time period or the period of the shorter action is included in the period of the longer). There is a connection between the two actions somehow.- we can use 'while', if there is a contrast between the two actions And that's all. I'm really at a loss how to look for these rules.Thanks for your help in advance.

AlpheccaStars · Accepted Answer

For individual words, your best resource is a good dictionary that has example sentences. There are many on-line.
http://www.freedictionary.org/?Query=while
The second best resource is a corpus that has been assembled for the purpose of language study.

The best choice depends on the semantics of the sentence.
When (best, also as, while are possible) Paul was trying to ring them, nobody was answering the phone..
Paul was trying to ring them, but nobody answered the phone.

As (best, also while and when are possible). Pat was coming downstairs, she heard a shot.
While (best, also as and when are possible) my father was watching TV, I was swotting (?) ~~the~~ English words.

There are no explicit grammar rules; it is just experience.

Hole One a New See · Answer

Thank you

It is not a good piece of news

I thought I will 'suffer' only from the collocations and idioms (of course I enjoy it but there are many

). For that purpose I use the 'in use' series (e.g. collocations in use intermediate, advanced, etc.), BBC's words in the news, and last but not least the monolingual dictionaries. These monolingual dictionaries include Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, its electronical version (for me, this is very good, it contains much more examples and grammar points than the online version and also contains the content of the online version), Cambridge Dictionaries Online, Macmillan online dictionary (What is your opinion about it? I found it tremendously useful). Sometimes I have to use a fourth dictionary (e.g. the word 'gauntlet' has a meaning which wasn't in these three (= attack from both sides [in connection with press photographers])).

What is your opinion about 'A Practical English Grammar - A. J. Thomson, A. V. Martinet'? If you know this book.
I just ask because I found a relatively detailed description of the use of these conjuctions in that book. It was written in 1990. Is it too old? I don't know about the changes of English grammar. Does it change during 20-25 years?

In the 'English grammar in use' book there is a sentence:
"You can say that something happened as you were doing something else (in the middle of doing something else)"

Is there a connection between the two actions somehow in the case of as? (Let's suppose that we are looking for the best solution.)

Can we exclude 'as' if the two sentences are not time parallel (as in the case of the first sentence)? (Let's not consider the 'as' in the meaning 'because'. Let's suppose that we are looking for the best solution).

Is 'while' the best in the last sentence because there is a contrast between the two sentences? (My father feels good unlike me (because I suffer from swotting English words.))

I still can't grab the essence of these conjunctions

Is it worth learning typical uses from the grammar books? (for example, again, 'English grammar in use' series).

'swot' -> Is it the problem of the word itself? It is just a British slang word and means: study very hard, especially before an exam. It was only in my grammar book.

Thanks for your help in advance.

AlpheccaStars · Answer

Hole One a New See (What is your opinion about it? I found it tremendously useful).

If you use onelook, you will get a list of many dictionary choices, including specialty dictionaries such as medical, law, and technology.
All the dictionaries have a particular purpose and audience. So use the one(s) that suit your needs.

Hole One a New See It was written in 1990. Is it too old? I don't know about the changes of English grammar. Does it change during 20-25 years?

English grammar (sentence structure, verb forms, punctuation) has not changed over the past 25 years, but the vocabulary has. For example, in a 1990 book, you will not find any examples related to the Internet, surfing, cell phones, texting, google, and so on.

Hole One a New See"You can say that something happened as you were doing something else (in the middle of doing something else)"

As I was looking for a word in the dictionary, I suddenly found the idiom that I had been searching for all last week.

This is a good example of using "as." "While" is a good synonym, but it is far more frequent. "As" can show an unexpected event that interrupts what you were doing.

There is another that starts the old nursery rhyme,

As I was going to St. Ives I met a man with seven wives,
Each wife had seven sacks, each sack had seven cats,
Each cat had seven kits: kits, cats, sacks and wives,
How many were going to St. Ives?

Hole One a New See'swot' -> Is it the problem of the word itself?

I have never encountered this word in American English. There are many differences between British and American English.

Hole One a New See · Answer

Thank you very much

Especially thanks for your patience with me.

All comments are very useful for me.

AlpheccaStars · Answer

So how many were going to St. Ives?

CalifJim · Answer

Hole One a New See'as', 'when', 'while'

Here are some links.

CJ

Hole One a New See · Answer

Thank you. I read it over.

As, when, while

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