Fill in the blank with the correct form of tense: While I _________ to him,…

Answer: was talking

Explanation:

• The clause 'his phone rang' is in the simple past. The action 'talking' was ongoing when the phone rang, so we use the past continuous to describe an ongoing past action that is interrupted.

• Past continuous is formed with 'was/were' + present participle. With the subject 'I', use 'was talking'.

• Why the other forms are incorrect:

• 'Is talking' is present continuous and does not match the past time reference.

• 'Had talked' (past perfect) indicates a completed action before another past event, not an action that was in progress when the phone rang.

• 'Were talking' is past continuous but uses 'were' for plural subjects (you/we/they). With 'I' the correct auxiliary is 'was', so 'were talking' is not correct here.