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  • 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!

Hi! This is Kee from BBC Learning English,

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