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Originally Posted by mrgoh - He was reading a book, when somebody knocked on the door.
- While he was reading, somebody knocked on the door.
The other day I heard that a teacher on local radio program explained something on differences of the meaning between above two sentences. But somehow I failed to pay attention and listen to it as i was driving.
Please be kind enough to explain precisely. |
'when' functions as a subordinate conjunction. If the adverbial clause introduced by 'when' is placed after main clause, you need not a comma. If the adverbial phrase is fronted, you should place a comma before the main clause.
He was reading a book when somebody knocked on the door.
When somebody knocked on the door, he was reading a book.
Somebody knocked on the door while he was reading.
While he was reading, somebody knocked on the door.
I don't see much difference between. Both mean during the time that someone was doing something, another event just happened.