Question

Posted by rfvv on Saturday, September 12, 2015 at 7:55am.

She was sitting in the train.
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Is she moving to sit down in the train?
Or she sat before and now she remains seated in the train?
English - Writeacher, Saturday, September 12, 2015 at 8:05am
She was sitting in the train.
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Or she sat before and she continued to remain seated in the train?

This is the effect of the past continuous tense. She sat (in the past) and remained seated (still in the past). (In the present, she is not necessarily still there!)
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Thank you for your help.

2. She was sitting in the train now.
3. She was sitting down in the train now.
4. When I go on the train, she was just sitting on the seat.

5. When I go on the train, she was just sitting down on the seat.

6. When I go on the train, she was sitting on the seat.

(What about those sentences? Is she in the process of sitting down now?)

Answer 1

"She was sitting on the train" would mean she was already seated. If she was about to sit down, we would say that. If she was trying to find a place to sit on the train, we would say that. To say someone is "sitting" means she is not in the act of sitting down, but that she is already sitting there.