A2 · The past
Used to and was doing: जाता था, जा रहा था
the past habitual and past progressive
The two presents with था instead of है: वह जाता था, “he used to go”; वह जा रहा था, “he was going”.
At a glance
- Remember
- Ta tha for used to, raha tha for was doing — and no ne in either.
- When
- Before the past
- The past
- Past linked to the present
- The present
- The future
- Completed in the future
The past — Something that happened, finished, and stays where it happened.
- Form
- मैं जाता था / मैं जाती थीused to (man / woman)
- Signal words
- पहले
- बचपन में
- हर दिन
- उस समय
- जब
- था
- थी
- थे
- Trap
- Wrong:उसने हर दिन अख़बार पढ़ता था।Right:वह हर दिन अख़बार पढ़ता था।
Your turn
10 exercises on this topic. Your answers are checked in the browser; none of them leaves your device.
The form
| used to (man / woman) | मैं जाता था / मैं जाती थी |
| used to, plural | हम जाते थे / हम जाती थीं |
| was doing (man / woman) | वह जा रहा था / वह जा रही थी |
| was doing, plural | वे जा रहे थे / वे जा रही थीं |
| you, polite | आप जाते थे / आप जा रहे थे |
The rules one by one
The form this topic is aboutThe word that calls for it
Stem + -ता/-ती/-ते + था is a past habit or state.
हम पहले मुंबई में रहते थे।We used to live in Mumbai.
Stem + रहा + था is an action in progress in the past.
बच्चे बाहर खेल रहे थे।The children were playing outside.
था, थी, थे, थीं agree in gender and number.
मेरी दादी हमें कहानियाँ सुनाती थीं।My grandmother used to tell us stories.
Neither tense takes ने.
वह हर दिन अख़बार पढ़ता था।He used to read the paper every day.
Example sentences
बचपन में मैं साइकिल से स्कूल जाता था।As a child I used to cycle to school.
मेरी दादी हमें कहानियाँ सुनाती थीं।My grandmother used to tell us stories.
जब आपने फ़ोन किया, मैं खाना बना रहा था।When you rang, I was cooking.
कल शाम को बहुत बारिश हो रही थी।It was raining hard yesterday evening.
हम पहले मुंबई में रहते थे।We used to live in Mumbai.
बच्चे बाहर खेल रहे थे।The children were playing outside.
6 more example sentences
पहले मैं बहुत चाय पीती थी।I used to drink a lot of tea.
लड़कियाँ पार्क में खेल रही थीं।The girls were playing in the park.
मेरे पिता जी एक स्कूल में पढ़ाते थे।My father used to teach at a school.
उस समय तुम क्या कर रहे थे?What were you doing at that time?
हम हर गर्मी में नानी के घर जाते थे।Every summer we used to go to our grandmother’s.
जब बिजली गई, हम खाना खा रहे थे।When the power went off, we were eating.
The trap English speakers fall into
Watch out
Reading has an object, so learners reach for ने. But ने comes only with the perfective — पढ़ा, पढ़ा है, पढ़ा था. With पढ़ता था and पढ़ रहा था the subject stays वह, and the verb agrees with it.
The full explanation
Read it all · about 1 min
Both presents turn into past tenses by swapping the auxiliary. Instead of हूँ/है/हो/हैं comes the past of होना: था for a man or masculine noun, थी for a woman or feminine noun, थे for a masculine plural, तुम and आप, थीं for a feminine plural. Unlike the present, the past auxiliary shows gender too.
The habitual past, मैं जाता था, is English “I used to go” or “I would go”: something that happened regularly and is over, or a background state. बचपन में मैं साइकिल से स्कूल जाता था, “as a child I used to cycle to school”.
The progressive past, मैं जा रहा था, is “I was going”: an action in the middle of happening at a moment in the past, very often the moment something else happened. जब आपने फ़ोन किया, मैं खाना बना रहा था, “when you rang, I was cooking”.
Neither tense takes ने, even with a verb that has an object. ने belongs to the perfective tenses only. So it is वह रोज़ अख़बार पढ़ता था, “he used to read the paper every day”, but उसने अख़बार पढ़ा, “he read the paper”.
A closer look
Was it a habit or a single event?
English “I went to school by bus” can mean one journey or years of them. Hindi has to choose: मैं बस से स्कूल गयाis one journeyमैं बस से स्कूल जाता थाis the habit Words like रोज़, हर साल and बचपन में almost always call for the habitual.
The habitual past also describes how things were: उस समय यहाँ एक छोटा-सा गाँव होता था, “in those days there used to be a small village here”. Note होता था, the habitual of होना, for a state that no longer holds.
Worth knowing (1)
-
The negative drops nothing here
In the present, a negative often drops its है. The past auxiliary usually stays: वह चाय नहीं पीता था is normal. Without था the sentence would read as present.
बचपन में मैं सब्ज़ियाँ नहीं खाता था।As a child I did not eat vegetables.
How well do you know this topic?
This is filled in automatically after you practise. You can change it here at any time.
Next on the path: 62 · लगना: to seem, to like, to feelBack to the learning path