Hacker News Reader

Comment by chrisweekly | Hacker News Reader

I've had similar experiences, and (having studied neuroscience as an undergrad and in casual / amateur research in the many years since) feel there's a lot of untapped potential to leverage in our hypnopompic and hypnogogic states (at the fuzzy boundaries of sleeping / wakefulness). Fascinating stuff.

(tangent) Also, please forgive my question which may seem impolite but I really want to know: why did you type "whilst" instead of "when" or "while"? Have you ever said the word "whilst" out loud, in a normal conversation? More letters, an extra (half)syllable, zero meaning or nuance added, I just don't get it. I wonder this every time I see it, mean no disrespect and would be grateful for a straightforward reply. (/tangent)

View on HN

Whilst/while is interesting.

Whilst to me is like being in the midst of something, not just that it is happening somewhere. It seems to have more specificity than 'while'.

"Whilst boarding the train..." Is going to be followed by something personal or hypothetical.

However, I think I'm prone to overlaying a gloss on words that isn't necessarily shared.

As I intimated 'whilst' I would use in philosophical contexts, arguments where there are alternative hypotheticals, say. "Whilst it might be said...".

Most likely it's just subconsciously learned, a product of native/mother tongue learning.

Would be interesting to see the word vectors extracted from literature/media moving over time and across contexts in order to make a comparison.

Not op, but I often do say 'whilst' out loud. It feels more structured and certain than 'while', which feels floppier as a word.

It's to be used when the word that follows begins with a vowel sound.

Is it? Do you have a source for this? Afaik ‘while’ is often used in US English and ‘whilst’ in British English.

both are definitely used in modern British English, but whilst is strange to my ears as I grew up in Ireland

No offense taken; I do say it out loud during conversations ; at times. I find myself ‘saying’ it more in my head whilst having a stream of consciousness moment.

I find that I have two personalities and my writing/text personality is much more sagacious and better spoken (if that makes sense??)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com