Quizzes & Puzzles32 mins ago
While and Whilst
10 Answers
What's the difference? It seems that one can be used in place of the other and it will still make sense, but is there a rule for these two words?
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For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.Yes, J...the University of Lancaster's word-frequency list reveals that, in every million words of written English, 'while' appears 503 times on average and 'whilst' appears 58 times. In other words, for every one 'whilst' you're likely to see about ten 'whiles'. Not quite as different as The Times website's figures, but still justifying my earlier comment about 'whilst' being "quite rare".
well, as I said, QM, they may officially be an endangered species at Wapping, which would skew the figures. In that case, the list you quote would certainly be a fairer picture. (Incidentally, although a million words seems like a lot, I believe it's only 2 or 3 days' copies of The Times... perhaps a bit more since it shrank.)