English Café: During vs. While and Whereas

Advanced Details: During vs. While and Whereas

Both during and while indicate two actions or events happening at the same time. However, there is a difference between while and during based on their grammatical category and usage. While is a conjunction, which is used to connect two clauses (sentences) together. During is a preposition, which is used before a noun or pronoun.

There is no difference between while and whereas in certain contexts; for instance, in situations where you want to contrast two persons, animals, or things in some respect, as in the following sentence: “The vendor treats this mechanical problem lightly, whereas my working team consider it to be of great importance.” In this sentence, the word “while” could be substituted for “whereas” with no change of meaning.

In a different context, the two words are not interchangeable, e.g., when “while” means “during the time that.” In the following sentence: “Nothing had changed while I was away,” the word “whereas” can not be used at all.