昨天和幾位美人兒吃飯，其中一位問及 as、when 和 while 的用法有甚麼分別。當時沒書在手，只道三個字可以互換。今早查查書，發覺還是有些許差異。
若有兩件事情同時發生，我們通常用 as、when 和 while 來帶出時間較長的一件事，例如：
As/when/while I was walking down the street I noticed a police car in front of the house. (走在街上時，我看見一輛警車停在房子前。)
如果兩件事情所持續的時間較長，我們多用 while 來敘述，少用 when 和 as，例如：
While my mum was watching TV, my dad was cooking. (媽媽在看電視時，爸爸在炒菜。)
As 可以用來講述兩件轉變中的事情，例如：
As I get older I get more pessimistic. (年紀愈大，我變得愈悲觀。)
上述分別其實頗細微，初學者大可不理。
後話：雖然我的功力，不及蕭 sir 和 The Teacher 般深厚，但若有英文問題，歡迎各位提出來，大家可以互相切磋嘛！
There's no need to be so modest, Chestnut. Anyway, I tell my students that "while" is usually followed by a continuous tense, while "when" by a simple tense. There, I just broke my own rule on "while"
回覆刪除In your example, "as" I get older is followed by simple present, while "when" I get older would likely be followed by simple future. There I go again, I just demolished my own "while" rule. Oh boy!
By the way, I am about 1/3 into the book. Maybe it's matter of 20/20 hindsight, but I feel there's an effect of translation. I am not implying that anything got lost in the translation, of course, just that it's "translated English".
[版主回覆03/29/2009 10:09:00]Wait a minute, Teach. I tell my students that both 'when' and 'while' are usually followed by a continuous tense because it is stated in the grammar books ...
I think the translation is quite nice (easy to read ). How can you tell it's 'translated English'?
And may I ask for your help, Teach? I'm not sure if Hanna had another offer when she decided to be a guard for the Nazi. Could you verify this for me, please? It should be in Part II. Thanks in advance.
I am more interest in in what situation did such kind of discussion come up? "Is it while you were waiting for the table, someone came up with the topic?"or "Is it when you were ordering the food, the question come up?", or " As the conversation among 幾位 dry up,a new topic is needed?"...
回覆刪除[版主回覆03/29/2009 10:10:00]Good questions, Kilo Kel.
Should be the third situation.
Let me clarify that "when" rule. I didn't make myself clear. When I said "followed by", I meant followed by the main clause, and the tense I referred to was the tense used in the main clause, not the subordinate clause. Did I make it clearer, or more confusing?
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In the movie, Hanna had another offer but turned it down because, as Pet speculated, she thought that she might be exposed as an illiterate in that job. I'll check the book version and let you know.
[版主回覆03/30/2009 07:00:00]Thanks a lot, Teach! A fellow blogger said Hanna didn't have another offer but I'm sure she had.
For the when thing, let me check my grammar books first and get back to you later.
Ok, correction, I misstated what I meant. It's the other way around. Sorry for the confusion. "When" should be followed, in the subordinate clause, by a simple tense.
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I'd like to check that grammar book of yours. "When" followed by continuous is new to me:
I'll return your book when I see you next week.
He returned my book when he visited me yesterday.
Both are common and neither followed by continous.
I found Kilo Kel's use of "when" to be a bit odd. Ooooh, unless he was referring to the difference between a simultaneous occurence of two events and a single event. Ok, I need to ponder it now....
Thank you so much for explaining those words, you are good enough to be my English teacher !
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[版主回覆03/30/2009 07:02:00]雲兒請別客氣！有問題不妨提出來啊！
英文老師還是留給The Teacher好了，我喜歡教數學多一點
栗子妹：As、when 和 while 這三個字慧行經常都用，但從來都沒有計較過甚麼時候該用，甚麼時候不該用，這是不懂英文的好處，喜歡的話便可以隨心去用
回覆刪除[版主回覆03/30/2009 07:03:00]慧行先生：我跟先生一樣呢！從沒想過三個字有甚麼分別
在下反而對"幾位美人兒"有興趣多d呀！
回覆刪除[版主回覆03/30/2009 07:04:00]井兄：快快留個電話號碼給我，下次我約美人兒出來時，立即打電話給井兄
栗子妹，早晨呀！
回覆刪除咁我唔客氣架啦！有問題就send黎！
[版主回覆03/30/2009 07:37:00]南爾：當然沒問題！希望我識答...
In the movie, she had. In the book, I just got past the part where she was asked that question but her lawyer objected to the question, and she didn't answer it. Maybe it'll be clarified later.
回覆刪除Thx for sharing the subtle difference, u are great!
回覆刪除Teacher, while I think I sometime use " when " in the same way as my question above, I use " when " above in the same manner as illustrate in the the above blog. Beside, I also assume 幾位美人兒 would take a few minutes to place the order, therefore the question come up when they are still ordering.(even they decide their order fast, I have to assume the waiter will lengthen the ordering time in order to hang out with 幾位美人兒 longer... )
回覆刪除OK, I'm almost finished with the book. To answer your previous question, yes, Hanna turned down training to be a bus driver because she needed to read road signs to drive. And in addition, she also turned down a promotion at Siemens before applying for the guard position. All this Michael recalled in Chapter 10.
回覆刪除[版主回覆04/03/2009 08:12:00]Many thanks, Teacher!
Do you like the book?
Yes, very much.
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