"Dia sedang tidur saat kami datang."
Translation:He was asleep when we arrived.
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What would be the difference between "Dia sedang tidur saat kami datang" & "Dia tidur saat kami datang"?
"sedang" is a word that is used as a time marker to indicate that the action is still ongoing.
A sentence like that should be translated in the "present continuous tense" in English.
"Dia tidur" = He/She sleeps/slept.
"Dia sedang tidur" = He/She is/was sleeping.
"sedang" can be replaced with the word "lagi".
Tono sedang makan = Tono lagi makan = Tono is eating (action is still ongoing).
But remember that when using "lagi" for this purpose, "lagi" is positioned in the same place as "sedang", right before the verb, as part of the predicate.
If you put "lagi" after the predicate, it has a different meaning:
Tono lagi makan = Tono is eating.
Tono makan lagi = Tono eats again.
Thanks for this. I especially appreciate your explanations of the less formal equivalents.
That’s a brilliant explanation but you completely contradict Duolingo. You say “Dia sedang tidur” = “She was/is sleeping” while Duo would mark you wrong and requires “She was/is asleep”. I was marked wrong for “She was sleeping when we arrived.”
My conclusion is that BOTH “She was sleeping...” AND “She was asleep...” are correct translations for “Dia sedang tidur...”
It's not really proper English.. correct grammar would be "he was... When we came"
Simply because you use 'is sleeping' and 'arrived' which are mix of present and past tense.
