I am trying to go deep with different words which its meaning is the same but at the time to write and speak only one of them can be used. Whilst and whereas mean the same, the question is when should I use each one?
Regards!!
It could be a geographic difference but since I'm not from the U.S. I can't address their usage of these words. The word "while" is quite common here in Canada but "whilst"... not so much. I'm not sure what "amongst" brings to the table that you don't already get from "among".
Daniel, I can't remember ever hearing an English speaker use the word whilst. It would sound very odd in normal conversation. Even whereas is rare in my circles. In Ruthi's sentence above, it would be more typical to say "My elder brother isn't very outgoing, but (or "mind you", or "on the other hand") my younger brother is very sociable".
I'm not saying it's wrong to use these words, just uncommon in everyday English. It would be like saying heretofore or notwithstanding. Valid words but very formal. I'll bet I do the same thing in Spanish without knowing it.
They are very similar.I don't think there is much difference in usage.
For example I can say "My elder brother isn't very outgoing,whereas my younger brother is very sociable'
Here I am contrasting,I would not use whilst.
Whilst is more to do with time.
It comes originally from the word While.
Please look after my cat whilst I am away.
Nowadays apparently there is less and less difference between the two,and some people use them interchangeably.
http://painintheenglish.com/case/5304
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/learnit/learnitv69.shtml
It is really difficult to choose sometimes.
Hope this helps a bit
Dave, I am preparing CAE exam on my own and I have seen whilst in several ways reports, announces and other texts and listening to in several audio files. Maybe they use uncommon words in these kind of extracts to show all the different existing English words, that is my impression after reading your post.
By the way, as you said, it is the same in Spanish, we have a brunch of words that very rarely use.
Is this a GB/US difference? Both while and whilst, like among and amongst, are reasonably common in GB English, whereas the '..st' forms are rarely used in the US.
