Subtitles section Play video Print subtitles 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!
A2 UK clause ing form rang ing lunch grammar While vs during: English In A Minute 17139 959 Evangeline posted on 2021/02/18 More Share Save Report Video vocabulary