The context given indicates that Sarah was engaged in an ongoing action in the past. The correct auxiliary verb for forming a past progressive question with the singular subject "Sarah" is "was."
Progressive tense
Progressive vs simple: I work in London (permanent job) vs I am working in London (temporary assignment). Simple = fact/habit/permanent. Progressive = ongoing/temporary/in-progress. Same verb, different aspect, different meaning. The choice isn't about grammar preference — it changes what you're communicating.
The progressive = be + -ing. Marks ongoing/temporary actions. Stative verbs resist it.
Diagnostic: is the action happening RIGHT NOW and likely to stop? → progressive. Is it a general truth, habit, or scheduled event? → simple. Is the verb stative (know, own, believe)? → simple (even if happening now).
Past tense
Simple past vs past perfect: simple past puts events on the main timeline (I arrived. She left.). Past perfect marks an event as earlier than another past event (She had left before I arrived). If all events are in sequence, simple past is enough. Only use past perfect when you need to show "earlier than the main story."
The past tense has four forms encoding different temporal relationships: simple past, past progressive, past perfect, past perfect progressive.
Diagnostic: are events in sequence? → simple past is fine. Need to show one event happened before another past event? → past perfect for the earlier one.
Verb
Verb vs noun vs adjective: nouns name things. Adjectives describe. Verbs express what happens or what IS. The test: can it take tense (walked, will walk)? Can it take -ing? Can it follow to as an infinitive (to walk)? Yes to any → verb. English often converts freely between classes (run = noun or verb), so context decides.
A verb = action/state/occurrence word. 5 forms (base, -s, past, past participle, -ing). Carries tense, aspect, mood, voice. The one required element in every sentence.
Diagnostic: does it change for tense (walk → walked)? Can you put to before it (to walk)? Does it take -ing (walking)? → verb.
Questions
Direct vs indirect questions: direct questions invert and end with ? (Where does she live?). Indirect questions DON'T invert and end with a period (I wonder where she lives.). Mixing these up — I wonder where does she live? ❌ — is one of the most common structural errors.
Questions in English use inversion/do-support. Types: yes/no, wh-, negative, tag. Direct questions invert; indirect don't.
Diagnostic: is your question embedded inside a statement (I wonder, Do you know, Can you tell me)? → DON'T invert. Is it a standalone question? → invert.
A1 | Elementary | Beginners
A1 vs A2: A1 covers isolated survival phrases (Where is…?, I am…, How much?). A2 handles connected sentences about familiar routines and simple past events. If you can manage short fixed phrases but not string together original sentences about your day, you're still A1.
A1 is the entry level of the CEFR: greetings, introductions, numbers, basic present tense, and core function words.
Diagnostic: can you describe yesterday using past tense? No → A1. Yes → you're moving into A2.
Easy
Easy vs Medium vs Hard: Easy = one rule, obvious answer, A1–A2. Medium = one rule but realistic distractors, A2–B1. Hard = interacting rules, edge cases, B2+. Start Easy to check you have the basics before moving up.
The Easy tag filters for single-rule, short-sentence, common-vocabulary challenges designed for beginners or for anyone wanting a confidence check on fundamentals.
Diagnostic: if you get Easy questions wrong, stay here — your foundations need work. If they feel trivial, move to Medium.