English term
when I was crossing the bridge
I know that using While instead of when is better but I want to know if it is gramatically incorrect.
Non-PRO (2): Shera Lyn Parpia, Tony M
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Responses
United Kingdom
poetically precise prose with... panache
Native in: English 
Works in: French to English, Spanish to English, English
it's not grammatically incorrect
| agree |
Veronika McLaren
9 mins
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thanks Veronika!
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| agree |
Cilian O'Tuama
: not grammatically incorrect
40 mins
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tanks Cilian!
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| agree |
writeaway
: this is a straightforward answer to a straightforward question.
1 hr
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thanks writeaway!
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| agree |
Jean-Claude Gouin
1 hr
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thanks 1045
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| agree |
David Hollywood
: all options suggested are valid: while, when, as
2 hrs
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thanks David!
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| agree |
Phoenix III
3 hrs
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thans Phoenix III!
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| agree |
cynthiatesser
7 hrs
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thanks cynthiatesser!
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| agree |
Phong Le
7 hrs
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thanks Phong Le!
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| agree |
Charles Davis
8 hrs
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thanks Charles!
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| agree |
Jack Doughty
8 hrs
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thanks Jack!
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| agree |
Olga Cartlidge
10 hrs
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thanks Olga!
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| agree |
Suzan Hamer
14 hrs
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thanks Suzan!
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| agree |
airmailrpl
: -
1 day 13 hrs
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thanks airmailrpl!
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| agree |
Natalia Volkova
2 days 6 hrs
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Thanks Natalia!
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United States
The Slanguage Buff
Native in: Polish (Variant: Standard-Poland) 
, English (Variant: US)
Works in: Polish to English, Spanish to English, English, and 4 more.
While is more appropriate according to prescriptivists and grammar purists
| neutral |
Carol Gullidge
: but the question was simply whether the header term is grammatically incorrect - not whether any alternative is more appropriate!
14 mins
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I think my response fully answers the question.
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| neutral |
Cilian O'Tuama
: more idiomatic/makes more sense, but Asker asks different Q
43 mins
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Yes, but he/she is smart enough to make the right conclusion.
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| neutral |
writeaway
: this could be discussed in a different forum: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_prescription
1 hr
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Sure.
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Discussion
You see, my old grammar book contains a note that after while we use the past continuous/progressive tense and not "when".
I always tell my students to avoid such generalizations. Life is never truly black or truly white. This is just my two cents' worth on the subject.
If I say 'when', it often means 'at some specific point during the time that': "When I lived in London I used to go to the opera a lot."
If I say 'while', it can suggest a shorter period of time, during some or all of which something...: "While I was looking out of the window, a bird flew past."