Question

Fill in the blank with appropriate past continuous tense:
Why did you bring your umbrella? ___________ when you left home?
a. was it raining
b. it was raining
c. has it been raining
d. it is raining

Answer 1

Hint: Past continuous tense conveys an activity that is progressing in the past. It uses the formula of ‘was’ + the present participle form of the verb. For example, she was running late for her class.

Complete answer:
From the hint given to us, we understand the meaning of past continuous tense. We observe that the given sentence is an interrogative sentence. The interrogative sentence is used to ask a question and ends with a question mark. For interrogative sentences, the auxiliary verb is placed at the initial position, followed by the subject and then the verb.
Let us analyse the given options one by one to find the correct answer.
“Was it raining” indicates past continuous form. We observe that it correctly fits the context of the given sentence. Hence, we can say that option ‘a’ is the correct answer.
“It was raining” indicates past continuous form, but it does not fit the context of the interrogative sentence. Hence, we can say that option ‘b’ is not the correct answer.
“Has it been raining” indicates present perfect continuous tense. Since it is not in the past continuous form, we can say that option ‘c’ is not the correct answer.
“It is raining” indicates present continuous tense. The phrase does not fit an interrogative sentence too. Hence, we can say that option ‘d’ is not the correct answer.
Thus, we can conclude that the correct answer is option ‘a’ - was it raining.

Note: To solve such questions, you are required to be familiar with the various forms of tenses. You are also required to be familiar with the difference in the word arrangement for various types of sentences.