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when toggle format what by license comment
Sep 15, 2019 at 7:42 answer added Khan timeline score: 1
S Sep 15, 2019 at 7:24 history suggested AIQ CC BY-SA 4.0
improved formatting, added the right tags
Sep 14, 2019 at 21:29 answer added AIQ timeline score: 2
Sep 14, 2019 at 21:00 comment added AIQ @user100323 Kindly tell us why do you think they are similar, or why you think they are not?
Sep 14, 2019 at 19:55 review Suggested edits
S Sep 15, 2019 at 7:24
Sep 14, 2019 at 18:52 comment added SovereignSun @FumbleFingers Exactly, my friend, if we talk about a span of time over which something happened then we cannot omit "while" when the adverbial clause is fronted, but when we mean only the event itself we can use "when" for instance. This much depends on how we see the situation.
Sep 14, 2019 at 18:49 comment added FumbleFingers (Which replacement would also allow us to discard the "continuous" aspect from the verb as well: Dad injured his back when he lifted some heavy boxes.)
Sep 14, 2019 at 18:45 comment added FumbleFingers @SovereignSun: No, you don't have to. But perhaps the average context where you might "front" such an adverbial clause is more likely to be one where the "within some extended duration" sense strongly applies. Hence, Meeting my future father-in-law for the first time, I was nervous (unlikely to include "while"), but While dining with him for the first time, I was careful not to chew with my mouth open. And don't forget that in many contexts (including OP's here) we could just as well replace while with when.
Sep 14, 2019 at 18:05 comment added SovereignSun @FumbleFingers You will have to include it if you start with the adverbial clause.
Sep 14, 2019 at 17:03 comment added FumbleFingers ...thus in your context I might prefer He injured his back lifting a heavy box and He injured his back while helping the removal men. But actually I probably wouldn't use while in either of them.
Sep 14, 2019 at 16:59 comment added FumbleFingers I think we don't usually include while in such contexts if it could reasonably be replaced by some other preposition such as by, in, through. That's to say, when the adverbial clause (lifting heavy cases here) is the cause of the initial statement (Dad injured his back). But we do (optionally) include it when the following clause represents a period of time within which the preceding statement took place.
Sep 14, 2019 at 16:18 history asked user100323 CC BY-SA 4.0