please explaint eh difference between "whilst" and "while"

[CostaRicanCod]

teh beneath adn underneath

i thnakoyu

"whilst" ends in st and "while" ends in e

There isn't a grammatical difference; it's just a matter of style/preference. Modern styles tend towards 'while' rather than 'whilst', just because it sounds less pompous.

This is without referring to my Special Books, mind.

well i am sorry that si shoddy

Hey thready, are you supposed to be working too?

yes so lapin make a rule out of that

Ah, I didn't understand 'teh beneath adn underneath' so ignored that bit. They are pretty much synonyms I think.

I use whilst alot, more than while

I was upstairs whilst DP was downstairs with the baby.

I will have a bath whilst DP will watch telly.

I will have a chinese takewawy whilst DS1 prefers to have an indian

Can I post on mumsnet whilst watching tv and listening to music at the same time?

I think you can use whilst or while in all of them sentences, it's down to preference.

"In the UK, the word whilst may be used as a conjunction (as an alternative to while, especially prevalent in some dialects), but while is used as a noun. In AmE only while is used in both contexts. For example, I will be a while versus whilst/while you were out, your friend called. To Americans the word whilst, in any context, seems very archaic or pretentious or both. In some regions of England, the word while is used to mean "until", so whilst may be used in spoken English to avoid confusion." From wiki

So i'm writing /saying it wrong then????

No shiny, you're not wrong. Your usage is fine - maybe just a bit unfashionable

Describes me to a tee unfashionable

While

Whilst

Ah, Supercollider. You have Special Books. Now I know who you are.

"To Americans the word whilst, in any context, seems very archaic or pretentious or both"

Ha! I'm going to make a point of using the word 'whilst' now. I hadn't noticed that they don't use it. They still mock me because I say 'parcel'

thready. I'm not hiding, I'm just Topical.

I'm trying to edit a load of references. Gah. And I can't get the paragraphs to hang, despite removing all the extraneous paragraph marks. Do you ever get the feeling that there are some gremlins in Word?

I have that hanging problem sometimes, superpol. Delete and rekey surrounding text??

So much for my no MN for a month rule. But I'm not spending much time on during weekdays. Honest.