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Ryanz0r Posted 20 years ago
Grammar

Usage of while/whilst, among/amongst and amid/amidst

0I've never understood this, and even the head of the English department at my grammar (as in selective secondary, not as in sentence structure 05000) school didn't know how to differentiate between them. Are there any points in which one cannot use one or the other of these? I have always used either, though I tend to use the "st" versions, purely because I prefer the sound.02br
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00Thanks for your help.010id4
  

Top answer

0 The references I checked say that 01font 00whilst02font 00 is chiefly British, but is interchangeable with 01font 00while02font 00 in meaning. One (American) dictionary calls 01font 00whilst 02font 00"archaic". 02br 02br 01font 00Amongst02font 00 is just a variant of 01font 00among02font 00.

— Rvw

  • 0 The references I checked say that 01font 00whilst02font 00 is chiefly British, but is interchangeable with 01font 00while02font 00 in meaning.
  • One (American) dictionary calls 01font 00whilst 02font 00"archaic".
  • 02br 02br 01font 00Amongst02font 00 is just a variant of 01font 00among02font 00.
  • 01i 00Webster's Dictionary of English Usage 02i 00adds:01blockquote 01blockquote 11blockquote 21blockquote 30Most of the commentators who mention these words note that 41i 40amongst42i 40 is less common but both are correct.
  • 42br 42br 42blockquote 42blockquote 32blockquote 22blockquote 11font 00Amidst02font 00 is just an alternative form of 01font 00amid02font 00.
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43 Answers
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0 The references I checked say that 01font00whilst02font00 is chiefly British, but is interchangeable with 01font00while02font00 in meaning. One (American) dictionary calls 01font00whilst 02font00"archaic". So whilst Americans might avoid it, it's probably stand
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0 Hmm, that's fair enough. I'm British, so that would probably explain why I tend to favour the "st" options. It's good to see that I haven't been mistaking the usage of these, as well.02br
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00Thanks for your help. 050010id1
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0 Really? Very few people in Britain would use whilst, amongst or amidst in normal conversation. It is seen as a sort of 'poetic' language. 0-
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0 nona,02br
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00Are these words common in the written language?02br
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00My reference has a copyright of 1989. Usages could have changed.02br
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01font00Amidst02font00 sounds normal even to me, an American.02br
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00rvw0-
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0 Hello02br
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00There is a comment in OED about "amidst" saying : There is a tendency to use "amidst" more distributively than "amid", e.g. of things scattered about, or a thing moving, in the midst of others. But as far as I checked on Google, I could not detect this tendency in the current English.02br
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00paco 0-
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0I don't know anybody who uses the "st" forms of these words. They sound like words from a foreign language to me. Well, that may be an exaggeration. 05000 Of the three, "amidst" seems the least objectionable in American English; "whilst", the most.02br
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00 CJ010id1
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Personally, as an American lawyer living in Britain, I would like to see "whilst" come back into American English for the meaning "during the time of/when/as" and have "while" be reserved, both in British and American English, for a substitute for "although" or "whereas." In formal legal American scholarly English (FLASE), we do not permit "since" to mean "because" or "whereas" -- it is propertly
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Welcome to the forum, Chasm!

I agree that whilst, amongst, and amidst have a nice sound, and whilst could have a useful, separate application.

But I think the language is a 500 pound gorilla -- it will become whatever it wants to.
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I'm English and I'd have it the other way round - 'while' implying something temporal and 'whilst' substituting for 'whereas'. Now that would be confusing.
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Whilst is used before a verb: Whilst watching television - - - - - Whilst watching their flocks by night

But: I read a book while I was travelling on the train. I read a book whilst travelling on the train.
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