‘During’ one of my lessons today, ‘while’ I was talking to my student, we talked ‘for’ about ten minutes about how to decide when to say ‘during’, ‘while’ or ‘for’. Here’s a little guide which should help…
How to use ‘during’ (pendant)
‘During’ is a preposition which is used before a noun (during + noun) to say when something happens. It does not tell us how long it happened. For example:
“Nobody spoke during the lesson.”
“We get a lot of rain here during the summer.”
How to use ‘while’ (pendant que)
‘While’ is used to talk about two things that are happening at the same time. The length of time is not important. Remember that ‘while’ is used with a subject and a verb (while + subject + verb). For example:
“The phone rang while I was washing the dishes.”
“I saw her while we were dining in the restaurant.”
How to use ‘for’ (pendant / pour)
‘For’ is a preposition which is used with a period of time to say how long something lasts
“We’ve been walking for 3 hours.”
“We waited for 30 minutes outside the hospital.”
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