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Hello everyone,Is it correct to use "past simple" with "while" and "past continuous" with "when" as follows?1. While she cooked, someone knocked on the door.2. While he played, he was tackled.3. When she was cooking, someone knocked on the door.4. When he was playing, he was tackled.Regards,Joseph

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

Joseph AIs it correct to use "past simple" with "while" and "past continuous" with "when" as follows?

Yes, but the pattern with "while" (1, 2) is probably more common than the one with "when" (3, 4), and none of those shows the usual patterns, which are the most common of all.

The canonical forms for these subordinators of time are
WHILE with -ing and WHEN without -ing,
but even so, you'll find the reverse forms as well, but less often, as shown below.

Brad set the table while I cooked supper.
While I waited, a couple of cars pulled up and men in suits stormed into the pub.
While everyone else listened to the music, Doug made a dash to the supermarket for snacks.

Where were the accountant watch dogs when the company was piling up debt?
When I was growing up, everyone kept telling me that things were getting better.
When Barack Obama was running for president, he said he supported the moon goal.

The first example above is very common. It shows two activities going on at the same time. The next two are also common. They show a sudden event interrupting an on-going situation that doesn't involve much movement (waiting, listening to music).

In the examples with 'when' the situation in the when-clause is a situation that occurred over a period of time as distinct from any other period of time.

I'd say that the reasons you're "reverse pattern" examples don't work well are as follows:

1. While she cooked, someone knocked on the door.

This is an attempt to show an interruption, thus:

While she was cooking, someone knocked on the door.

But with both clauses in the simple past, it gives the impression that two activities were going on at the same time, as if to say that all the while she was cooking, someone else was knocking on the door. The knocking on the door might even have started before she started cooking. It's just that the knocking and the cooking were happening at the same time. There's too much movement involved in both clauses to make this one work, though I have to say that this is a borderline case, and I may be being too fussy on this point.

2. While he played, he was tackled.

This one is better as He was tackled while playing football.

Just "played" could mean "played chess", and in this case you don't need to repeat the same subject.

You can also say He was playing football when he was tackled.

Joseph A3. When she was cooking, someone knocked on the door.

This is better than sentence 1, but not better than the canonical While she was cooking, someone knocked on the door.

Joseph A4. When he was playing, he was tackled.

The situation in both 3 and 4 is not a situation that marks a whole period of time as in the examples I showed you earlier. To use 'when' convincingly in this pattern, you need something like the following:

When she was attending cooking school, the teacher her told her that she would be a famous chef one day.
When he was playing football for the Rascals, he was tackled at least twice a week.

In these the past continuous defines a period of time (in someone's life in these cases), and that's the sort of thing you need to make this "reverse pattern" work.

CJ

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