"वह संतरे खाती थी।"

Translation: She used to eat oranges.

[zeebo7]

I'm a little confused why this doesn't mean 'She ate oranges'? What about this sentence makes it 'used to eat'?

[Kateykr]

The 'ti' in 'khati" indicates a habit. The last word 'thi' means this is in the past. I've been studying Hindi for a LONG time but I'm not native so take my Hindi with a grain of namak.

[AndriLindbergs]

Thanks for this clarification. Just what I was looking for.

[GirishWar]

खाती थी is what makes it mean used to eat. It tells that she used to do the activity in the past.

to say she ate oranges, i think you would say "उसने संतरे खाये"

[aaditsingh8]

That is correct!

[Maheshwara19]

Why is it "usne" and not "vaha"

[RajasDaithankar]

@Maheshwara - that's the way a one-time action in the past is denoted in Hindi.

Somewhat, but not exactly, similar to the difference between "She ate" and "She used to eat". Why do you say 'she used to..' to denote habit and not just plain 'she'?
That's kind of the difference in Hindi here.

[RaniYogaDe]

Thi means "used to" or "were" or "had" and it creates the past tense in this sentence.

[lwinters6]

Is it incorrect to say "she was eating oranges"?

[RajasDaithankar]

@lwinters: That would be "वह संतरे खा रही थी"

[ThomasSchw248451]

Only "used to eat" is usually derived from the context