Let me begin by saying that there are a number of people who will always insist on using whilst over while. Now, while (whilst) they are perfectly free to choose their own words because there is no ‘rule’ about these things, those who insist on whilst often do so according to an misinformed understanding that it is ‘better’, ‘correct’, ‘more formal’ or ‘superior’ to plain old, common while. But is it? The while/whilst dilemma is a funny one. It is one of these cases where the option has for many become a hard-and-fast rule. The unyielding whilst-brigade will often insist on changing other peoples’ whiles into whilsts, often together with a ticking off or two for the overt display of linguistic tardiness. Before I delve further into this linguistic dark matter, the Americans in the room are excused: the use of whilst, according to the OED, i scholarships for high school students s ‘chiefly British’. So if you are writing for a US audience just stick to while. You may leave now. Now, there may still be one or two Americans still in the room. This will undoubtedly be because you, too, are followers of the almighty ‘whilst-is-better’ philosophy. I may sound patronising, and perhaps I am, but the tone is no more harmful than being on the receiving end of an earful of “it should be whilst, not while”. So, what is this whilst/while business all about? Who is ‘right’? First, it is not a case of wrong spelling, both words are spelt (‘spelled’ for the Americans in the class) correctly; that is not the problem. Nor is it an Americanism versus Briticism thing. Third, it isn’t necessarily a case of old versus new — not the whole story anyway. The main problem is one of evolution, but part of the problem is one of consistency.