Are the following sentences similar?
Dad injured his back lifting heavy boxes.
Dad injured his back while lifting heavy boxes.
Which of these two would a native speaker prefer?
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2I 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.– FumbleFingersCommented Sep 14, 2019 at 16:59
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1...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.– FumbleFingersCommented Sep 14, 2019 at 17:03
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1@FumbleFingers You will have to include it if you start with the adverbial clause.– SovereignSunCommented Sep 14, 2019 at 18:05
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3@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.– FumbleFingersCommented Sep 14, 2019 at 18:45
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1(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.)– FumbleFingersCommented Sep 14, 2019 at 18:49
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2 Answers
The sentences are similar in the sense that they both essentially tell the reader that your dad is injured. Other than that, they are a bit different.
Cambridge dictionary defines "while" as "during the time that, or at the same time as".
Collins says "if something happens while something else is happening, the two things are happening at the same time."
- Dad injured his back lifting heavy boxes.
This does not say if he injured his back at the same time when he was lifting the boxes. It is possible that he works at a warehouse. His job is to move heavy boxes. He does that every day. Lifting boxes continuously or repeatedly over a long period of time (google) has caused sever wear and tear to his lower back. In this case, there is no one particular event that would justify the use of "while". But this scenario does make the sentence "Dad injured his back lifting heavy boxes" totally appropriate. The emphasis here is how he injured his back (but not the exact event when that happened).
- Dad injured his back while lifting heavy boxes.
This sentence tells us when he got injured. He injured his back in the act of (or while) lifting the boxes. The emphasis here is the time/event when he actually injured himself.
To better understand the use of "while" in the general context, take a look at the comments made by FumbleFingers, which are super helpful.
Yes, they are similar in meaning.
According to British Counsil, present participle has a similar meaning to while, when, as soon as. For example:
Sitting at the cafe with my friends, I suddenly realised that I had put the oven on at home.
We can also say: While (I was) sitting at the cafe with my friends, I suddenly realised that I had put the oven on at home.
I think the sentence "Dad injured his back lifting heavy boxes" is more common and idiomatic".
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"They took a photo of me, threatening to expose it if I don't listen to them.". Here none of : while, when and as soon as, seems to work. Please help. Commented Sep 20, 2019 at 14:04