While vs During - English In A Minute

Hi! This is Kee from BBC Learning English,

and today, I'm going to tell you the differences

between 'while' and 'during'.

We can use 'while' and 'during' to say that a shorter event

happened within a longer event.

They mean the same, but the grammar's different.

After 'while', we have a clause.

A clause is a group of words containing a subject

and a verb.

So we can say:

While I was having lunch, my phone rang.

Remember that the verb in the while clause

is usually in an ING form.

We can also use 'while' with just an ING form.

So we can say:

While having lunch, my phone rang.

So we remove the subject and the 'be' verb.

However, 'during' is different because it can

only be used with a noun phrase.

So we can say:

During lunch, my phone rang.

We cannot use a clause or just the ING form.

So, same meaning, but different grammar!