I'm sorry I missed your call. I ____ a shower and I simply didn't hear the phone ring.

Let's figure this out!

The sentence describes a past event where something was happening (taking a shower) which was interrupted by another past event (the phone ringing). This is a classic case for using the Past Continuous tense.

Let's look at the options:

• was having: This is the Past Continuous tense (was/were + -ing verb). It fits perfectly to describe an ongoing action in the past.
• had: This is the Simple Past tense. It usually describes a completed action in the past.
• had had: This is the Past Perfect tense. It describes an action that happened before another past action.
• had been having: This is the Past Perfect Continuous tense. It describes a continuous action that started in the past and continued up to another point in the past.

In this sentence, the action of 'taking a shower' was ongoing when the phone rang. So, 'I was having a shower' is the most appropriate choice.

Example Breakdown:

• The main event that happened and interrupted something else is the phone ringing ('I simply didn't hear the phone ring' - Simple Past).
• The action that was happening at that moment is 'taking a shower'. We use Past Continuous for this.

So, the sentence should be: 'I'm sorry I missed your call. I was having a shower and I simply didn't hear the phone ring.'

Answer: was having