Whilst

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It may be grammatically correct to use but makes my teeth grind when I see it written down. It is used so often on MN but I never hear it used in real life. It just seems so pretentious and obnoxious. I read constantly and it also rarely used in fiction and non-fiction.

Just need to rant about a highly irritating word!

I think there are quite clear rules in English, spoken and written.
Just that we have dialectal differences, that there are differences between the OED and the Urban Dictionary, or that many ignore the rules as last century fuddyduddy nonsense.

Whilst in a Yorkshire accent,DullAndOld? What is wrong with that, prey?

Skatingfastonthinice

My grandmother would say ‘Skating, is that Yourself?’ if we were on the phone, but she was West coast Scots, not English. Himself is still used as a term for your husband by some.

As is “Her Indoors” used by some Londoners, it has been said.

DullAndOld

talking (sic) about what is 'correct' and 'incorrect' makes you look uneducated to be honest.

Nice try - but absolute rot. Are you being disingenuous?

I think gotten and got mean slightly different things.

Gotten is to become and got is to have or own

Eg I have gotten fat
I have got a new dress

But in uk English we use got to mean both.

For that reason gotten doesn't annoy me too much.

We don't go around randomly omitting letter from words.

Hoist by your own petard.

That's the risk of being pedantic.

" Nice try - but absolute rot. Are you being disingenuous?"

no, it is not 'absolute rot' thank you. There is no academy of the English language, to say that 'this is correct'. That is a fact, not 'rot', thank you. I do know a bit about this.
Therefore our grammar is descriptive not prescriptive.

oh nothing wrong with it at all, Rose, it is just what I imagine. I might have had a friend from Yorkshire who used to say it a lot.

"Whilst" just seems very Hyacinth Bucket.

You mean not common enough for you?
Don’t worry, those of us to whom grammar and accuracy matter are a minority. A few more decades and we will be critically endangered and then extinct.

I see that Rose explained the got / gotten thing before me, far more eloquently and impressively!

I'm guessing that's the difference between someone who writes academically (her) and someone who writes marketing copy (me)!

*I think gotten and got mean slightly different things.

Gotten is to become and got is to have or own

Eg I have gotten fat
I have got a new dress

But in uk English we use got to mean both.

For that reason gotten doesn't annoy me too much.*

I would use them like this (I'm Irish)

I would use gotten like the example you gave but also in this way :

I would have gotten you one as well if I knew you were looking for one

But then I'd use got for just the past tense like :

I got this in the sale

Yeah, I get that. It would be unusual to hear a UK English speaker use gotten at all though.

I use whilst and I have a suspicion it's a generational thing. It's certainly what I was taught at school but my older children have never used it. In fact they seem to do less grammar than we did and no Latin at all which was compulsory for my age group.

Nothing wrong with whilst, it's an ordinary word. Doesn't mean the same as while either.

DullAndGrey

Erm...I do know a bit about this, too - to use your phraseology. It is a very large part of my profession.

What’s the weird “thank you” thing all about? Lol

There's no difference in meaning between while and whilst (except that 'while' can also be used as a noun). Some people seem to see whilst as having a more formal or literary ring to it, but plenty of people of all classes seem to use it. It's just down to personal usage or preference.

" Erm...I do know a bit about this, too -"

well in that case you will know that there is in fact no academy for English wont you? so I am not talking 'rot'.. thank you..
:)
what is the weird 'erm' thing about anyway?

What Cavender said.

I’d really like people to start using ‘less’ and ‘fewer’ correctly.

It would be unusual to hear a UK English speaker use gotten at all though.

Not everywhere in the U.K. it does still exists in some dialects. I wouldn’t expect to see it written down though certainly.

I would never use 'gotten'.

I remember being told at school to avoid 'got' wherever possible, because an alternative was usually better. So I would tend to say (and would definitely write) "I have become fat" or "I have a new dress".

I use both 'while' and 'whilst'. In my view, 'whilst' can always be replaced by 'while' and remain correct, but there are many contexts in which you cannot sensibly replace 'while' with 'whilst'.