0

I'm not sure what time I should use after while in this sentence:

He constantly thinks about their correspondence while he was in prison.

tchrist
  • 134,759
Darina
  • 1
  • 1
    It looks fine with was. By the way, are you referring to tense (e.g. is vs was) or do you really mean 'time' (e.g. 5pm)? – Lawrence Feb 07 '18 at 16:11
  • I mean tense, as I suppose there may be Present Perfect or something like that – Darina Feb 07 '18 at 16:16
  • He constantly thought....while he was ..... – FrankMK Feb 07 '18 at 16:28
  • 2
    Is the meaning of your sentence that the correspondence is from some previous period during which he was in prison? So, he's no longer is prison but remembers the correspondence from when he had been? – tchrist Feb 07 '18 at 16:46
  • Yes, that's is so – Darina Feb 07 '18 at 16:54
  • The sentence is not idiomatic. At first I thought it was ungrammatical but after reading it again it is logical (in one meaning only) but not generally usable. – Nigel J Feb 07 '18 at 16:56

1 Answers1

3

As tchrist pointed out in a comment, your sentence calls for the use of some expression like "from while" in place of "while".

The word while by itself is generally a synonym for "during", and is used to express events that happened at the same time (or an event that happened during a certain period of time). For example, you could say

He constantly thought about their correspondence while he was in prison.

to express the idea "During his time at prison, he constantly thought about their correspondence."

He constantly thinks about their correspondence while he was in prison.

This sentence, as written, sounds incorrect.

To express the idea "Now that he is out of prison, he constantly thinks back to their correspondence from the time when he was in prison", you can say (as tchrist mentioned):

He constantly thinks about their correspondence from (back) while he was in prison.

(the word "back" is optional)

Since he is thinking at a time when he has finished with being in prison, you could use the word "when" instead:

He constantly thinks about their correspondence from (back) when he was in prison.

It actually sounds most natural to me to use "from when he".

herisson
  • 81,803
  • Try it this way and you'll see: “He constantly thinks about their correspondence from back while he was in prison.” – tchrist Feb 07 '18 at 16:36
  • @tchrist: That is a different sentence. "While" meaning "from back while" doesn't seem familiar to me, but I can research whether it is used if you mean to imply that. – herisson Feb 07 '18 at 16:39
  • I threw in the back as an emphatic; from should suffice. Here “while” just means “from when”. – tchrist Feb 07 '18 at 16:39
  • @tchrist: I don't understand what you mean with your first comment, unless you are saying that "while" can be interpreted the same way as "from while", or unless you think that the original poster wrote "while" as a mistake for "for while". The latter possibility hadn't occured to me; I suppose you should either write your own answer based on that, or leave a comment suggesting that the original poster clarify the question. I don't want to expand my answer to address all possible interpretations of what the original sentence could be a mistake for. – herisson Feb 07 '18 at 16:42
  • 1
    I just meant that the sentence makes sense to me if read as there having been a from there. – tchrist Feb 07 '18 at 16:43