"Were you going?"

Translation: क्या तू जा रही थी?

[Elliott2804]

it doesn't accept था ?

[MKShukla]

In Hindi, verb form also changes according to the subject as in Spanish.

Here, the verb is 'जा रही' which is feminine so it is compatible only with either 'थी' or 'थीं'.
Since the subject is informal and singular 'तू', so there is only one correct option left that is 'थी'.
'थीं' is used when a feminine subject is either formal or plural.

Some more examples demonstrating how the verb forms change according to the subject-

1- 'She used to sing.' = 'वह गाया करती थी।'

'He used to sing.' = 'वह गाया करता था।'

2- 'She is eating a mango.' = 'वह एक आम खा रही है।'

'He is eating a mango.' = 'वह एक आम खा रहा है।'

[RADHIKA108]

Thank you for explaining the difference between 'थी' and 'थीं'. I have been asking but no reply from Vinnay.

[Sam362597]

They only seem to accept 'tu' for this one, and I make a point of trying not to use tu....

[Andreas246]

I just used तुम and it was accepted (-:

[Sam362597]

And only the female version of tu???

[AdityaGupt138061]

Same problem as sam

[murari261284]

Tu kya ja rahi ti - incorrect. Kya tu ja rahi ti correct but it was said that with question word we will start q in hindi only if answer is yes or no... ?

[Wilbur111]

Your first version means "what were you going?" Which doesn't make much sense. :)

And the sample sentence can indeed be answered with "yes" or "no".

[OJFord]

I put तुम & थीं and it accepted it but said it was a typo for थी - but it should be थीं right?

[rct1z]

Yes. If your wrote तुम, then the auxililary verb should be plural-- either थे or थीं.

[namahslay]

It should be थी only. Check the explanation above.

[OJFord]

The explanation above correctly says that तू is singular, so it's थी only. But I said that I had used तुम, which is grammatically plural; I still think it should be थीं in that case right? Just the same as if I'd written आप।

[namahslay]

तू and तुम can be used interchangably. तुम is not necessarily used to indicate plural ,if we want to use तुम to indicate plural we use तुम लोग / तुम सब .

थी is usually used when we are talking informally & singular and थीं is used when we are talking to someone elderly or many people.

In the sentence क्या तुम जा रही थी? / क्या तू जा रही थी?
We are asking to one female (singular).

We would've used थीं if it was something like -
क्या आप जा रही थीं? Or क्या आप सब कही जा रही थीं?
However you can use थीं in the first case but it would give a typo because it's not used or maybe rarely used (I've never heard) and many native Hindi speakers will take it as an error.

To conclude तुम is not necessarily used to indicate plural.
I can ask you if you understood it - क्या तुम ये समझे? . Here I've used तुम to ask you a question (singular) or I can also say क्या तु ये समझा?

See how there's a difference of the Matra
तुम > समझे and तू > समझा.
We don't use the latter one with elders at all. And I'd say don't use तुम too with elders.

तुम (singular second person /informal)

तू (singular second person /super informal)

तुम लोग / तुम सब (informal plural)

आप (formal /singular /sometimes plural )

आप लोग /आप सब ( formal /plural)

थी (informal/singular / female)

थीं (formal/ plural or singular)

Informal you ( तुम ) and formal थीं can't be used together.

[OJFord]

I said grammatically plural, I know it can refer to a singular person. Just like आप is also grammatically plural even if talking to one person.

It seems it does conjugate without the अनुस्वार though: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E0%A4%9C%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%A8%E0%A4%BE#Conjugation.

[Roger423959]

Are we assuming here that tu is female?

[namahslay]

Yes . It's like 'You'. You use 'You're for both male and female.

[AlexandraMira]

indeed, why is tha not accepted?

[namahslay]

Because we're talking about female there and hence there's रही and not रहा . And for females we use थी and not था.