Question

Complete the given sentence with the correct form of the word.
When the rain started, we __________ (stand) in the field.

Answer 1

Hint: The scope of the action is continuous in the past. This means that your conjugated verb will end with the suffix ‘ing’.

Complete answer:

The Past Tense denotes those actions that have already taken place in the past. To frame verbs in the past tense, you must add the suffix ‘ed’ to the conjugated form of the infinitive of the verb. ‘Infinitive’ refers to the ‘to form’ of a verb. E.g. - to meet.
There are four types of past tenses:
The Simple Past Tense is used when the action is indefinite in the past. It doesn’t make use of any auxiliary verb.
The Past Continuous Tense is used when the action is continuous in the past. The infinitive form of such verbs is preceded by the auxiliary was.
The Past Perfect Tense is used when the action has been completed in the past itself. The infinitive form of such verbs is preceded by the auxiliary had.
The Past Perfect Continuous Tense is used when an action is expected to continue up until a point in the past. The infinitive form of such verbs is preceded by the auxiliary had been.
In the above question, the action is continuous in the past as hinted from the fact that they had been in the field and had nowhere to go. This means that the tense of the action is the Past Continuous Tense. Following the rules of conjugation, the correct answer is ‘When the rain started, we were standing in the field’.

Note: To avoid making errors, consider when the action started and ended in the past. In this case, the action started in the past but we don’t know if it ended in the past.