Question

It ____________ this morning when I woke up. (Fill in the blank with the most appropriate word.)
A) Is raining
B) Will rain
C) Was raining
D) Would rain

Answer 1

Hint: Tenses are usually manifested by the use of specific forms of verbs, particularly in their conjugation patterns. The simple past tense is used to denote a completed action that took place or occurred at a certain point in time in the past.

Complete answer:
The sentence in the question uses the word 'Woke', which means that the sentence is of the past tense. As a result, the answer must be in the past tense.

Now let us look into the given options:
Option A – In this option, the words ‘is raining’ is used. This is in the present continuous tense and it tells us that ‘it is still raining in the present tense. We need to talk about the morning when we ‘woke up’. Therefore, it is incorrect.
Option B – This option gives us the verb 'will rain'. This is in the simple future tense, not the past. As a result, it forms a completely incorrect sentence with its first half in the future tense and its second half in the past tense. Therefore, this option is incorrect.
Option C – The past continuous tense of 'was raining' is 'was'. As a result, it is in the past tense. It denotes that when the subject awakened in the past, he or she was experiencing an action that was happening at that time i.e. It was raining. Therefore, this is the correct answer i.e, It was raining this morning when I woke up.
Option D – The word ‘would rain’ is used here, which signifies something that might happen in future. Whereas, according to the sentence, the person already ‘woke up’ in the past. Therefore, the tenses of the two parts of the sentence do not fit together. Thus, this option is incorrect.

Thus, the correct answer is Option (C) Was raining

Note: In this question we came across the past continuous tense. The continuous tense is also used in present and in the future tense. For e.g. It is raining. This is a sentence in the present continuous tense. When we say It will keep raining for hours, we are using the future continuous tense.