Definition: A participle is a word formed from a verb that can function as part of a verb phrase.

There are two participles: The present participle and the past participle. They can both be used as adjectives. Present participle The present participle is formed by adding "-ing" to the base form of a verb. It is used in: i. Continuous or Progressive verb forms  I'm leaving in five minutes.  The girl is swimming As an adjective  A dying man  Your mother is a charming person As a gerund  He is afraid of flying.

Note the exceptions in spelling when adding "ing": Exception Final e dropped (but: ee is not changed) Final consonant after short, stressed vowel is doubled Final consonant l after vowel is always doubled (in British English) Final ie becomes y Example come coming agree - agreeing sit sitting travel travelling lie lying

Past participle The past participle is formed by adding "-ed" to the base form, unless it is an irregular verb. It is used: i. As an adjective  A tired group  Spoken words cannot be revoked. With the auxiliary verb "have" to form the perfect aspect  The gas station has closed  They've just arrived. With the verb "be" to form the passive  He was robbed a couple of days ago.  The letter was written.

Note the following exceptions in spelling when adding "ed": Exceptions when adding ed after a final e, only add d Example love loved

final consonant after a short, stressed vowel or l as final consonant after a vowel is doubled final y after a consonant becomes i

admit admitted travel travelled hurry hurried

participle
Definition: A verbal that functions as an adjective. Present participles end in -ing (carrying, sharing, tapping). Past participles of regular verbs end in -ed (carried, shared, tapped). Adjective, participial. See also:
y y y y y y y y

Absolutes and Participial Phrases in Shaw's "The Eighty-Yard Run" Building Sentences with Participial Phrases Creating and Arranging Participial Phrases Identifying Verbals -ing Form Participial Phrase Participial Phrases in Momaday's "House Made of Dawn" What Is a Present Participle?

Etymology:
From the Latin, "share, partake, participate"

Examples and Observations:

y

"As modifiers of nouns, present and past participles of verbs function very much like adjectives. Indeed, they are sometimes regarded as adjectives when they modify nouns. A present participle attributes a quality of action to the noun, which is viewed as undertaking the action, as retreating of legs in [109]. A past participle views the noun as having undergone the action expressed by the participle, as prefabricated of buildings in [110]. [109] . . . the cripple's envy at his straight, retreating legs [110] various prefabricated buildings Thus, the present is an 'active' participle and the past is a 'passive' participle." (Howard Jackson, Grammar and Meaning. Longman, 1990)

"When the participle is a single word--the verb with no complements or modifiers--it usually occupies the adjective slot in preheadword position: Our snoring visitor kept the household awake. The barking dog next door drives us crazy. ". . . While the single-word participle generally fills the preheadword adjective slot, it too can sometimes open the sentence--and with considerable drama: Exasperated, she made the decision to leave immediately. Outraged, the entire committee resigned. You'll notice that both of these openers are past participles, rather than the -ing present participle form; they are, in fact, the passive voice." (Martha Kolln, Rhetorical Grammar. Pearson, 2007)

Examples of Present Participles "God is a comedian, playing to an audience too afraid to laugh." (Voltaire) "Drawing on my fine command of the English language, I said nothing." (Robert Benchley) "The ducks come on swift, silent wings, gliding through the treetops as if guided by radar, twisting, turning, never touching a twig in that thick growth of trees that surrounded the lake." (Jack Denton Scott, "The Wondrous Wood Duck")

Examples of Past Participles "One January day, thirty years ago, the little town of Hanover, anchored on a windy Nebraska tableland, was trying not to be blown away. (Willa Cather, O Pioneers!) The Bible's Jezebel came to an ugly end. Thrown from a balcony, trampled by horses, and devoured by dogs, the middle-aged queen has had few good days since. "I believe in broken, fractured, complicated narratives, but I believe in narratives as a vehicle for truth, not simply as a form of entertainment." (Stephen Greenblatt)

Pronunciation: PAR-ti-sip-ul \

Participle
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search In linguistics, a participle (adjective participial, from Latin participium, a calque of Greek "partaking") can be a verb or an adjective (participial phrase). It is a derivative of a nonfinite verb, which can be used in compound tenses or voices, or as a modifier. Participles often share properties with other parts of speech, in particular adjectives and nouns

Participles in Modern English

English verbs have two participles: 1. called variously the present, active, imperfect, or progressive participle, it is identical in form to the gerund; the term present participle is sometimes used to include the gerund. The term gerund-participle is also used. 2. called variously the past, passive, or perfect participle, it is usually identical to the verb's preterite (past tense) form, though in irregular verbs the two usually differ. Examples of participle formation include: Past Past Present Regular/ Simple Participle Participle Irregular Verb to talk talked talking regular to hire hired hiring to do did done doing to say said saying to eat ate eaten eating to write wrote written writing irregular to beat beat beaten beating to sing sang sung singing to see saw seen seeing The present participle in English is in the active voice and is used for:
y y y

forming the progressive aspect: Jim was sleeping. modifying a noun as an adjective: Let sleeping dogs lie. modifying a verb or sentence in clauses: Broadly speaking, the project was successful.

The present participle in English has the same form as the gerund, but the gerund acts as a noun rather than a verb or a modifier. The word sleeping in Your job description does not include sleeping is a gerund and not a present participle. The past participle may be used in both active and passive voices:
y y y y y

forming the perfect aspect: The chicken has eaten. forming the passive voice: The chicken was eaten. modifying a noun, with active sense: our fallen comrades modifying a noun, with passive sense: the attached files modifying a verb or sentence, with passive sense: Seen from this perspective, the problem presents no easy solution.

As noun-modifiers, participles usually precede the noun (like adjectives), but in many cases they can or must follow it:
y y y

The visiting dignitaries devoured the baked apples. Please bring all the documents required. The difficulties encountered were nearly insurmountable.

The Participle
Recognize a participle when you see one. Participles come in two varieties: past and present. They are two of the five forms or principal parts that every verb has. Look at the charts below.

Regular Verbs:
Verb Simple Present Simple Past Past Participle Present Participle Infinitive giggle giggle(s) giggled giggled giggling to giggle help help(s) helped helped helping to help jump jump(s) jumped jumped jumping to jump

Irregular Verbs:
Verb bring ring sing Simple Present Simple Past Past Participle Present Participle Infinitive bring(s) brought brought bringing to bring ring(s) rang rung ringing to ring sing(s) sang sung singing to sing

swim swim(s)

swam

swum

swimming

to swim

Notice that each present participle ends in ing. This is the case 100 percent of the time. On the other hand, you can see that past participles do not have a consistent ending. The past participles of all regular verbs end in ed; the past participles of irregular verbs, however, vary considerably. If you look at bring and sing, for example, you'll see that their past participles brought and sungdo not follow the same pattern even though both verbs have ing as the last three letters. Consult a dictionary whenever you are unsure of a verb's past participle form. Know the functions of participles. Participles have three functions in sentences. They can be components of multipart verbs, or they can function as adjectives or nouns.

Participles in Multipart Verbs

A verb can have as many as four parts. When you form multipart verbs, you use a combination of auxiliary verbs and participles. Look at the examples below: Our pet alligator ate Mrs. Olsen's poodle. Ate = simple past tense [no participle]. With a broom, Mrs. Olsen was beating our alligator over the head in an attempt to retrieve her poodle. Was = auxiliary verb; beating = present participle. Our pet alligator has been stalking neighborhood pets because my brother Billy forgets to feed the poor reptile. Has = auxiliary verb; been = past participle; stalking = present participle. Our pet alligator should have been eating Gator Chow, crunchy nuggets that Billy leaves for him in a bowl. Should, have = auxiliary verbs; been = past participle; eating = present participle.

Participles as Adjectives
Past and present participles often function as adjectives that describe nouns. Here are some examples:

The crying baby drew a long breath and sucked in a spider crouching in the corner of the crib. Which baby? The crying baby. Which spider? The one that was crouching in the corner. The mangled pair of sunglasses, bruised face, broken arm, and bleeding knees meant Genette had taken another spill on her mountain bike. Which pair of sunglasses? The mangled pair. Which face? The bruised one. Which arm? The broken one. Which knees? The bleeding ones.

Participles as Nouns
Present participles can function as nounsthe subjects, direct objects, indirect objects, objects of prepositions, and subject complements in sentences. Whenever a present participle functions as a noun, you call it a gerund. Take a look at these examples: Sneezing exhausts Steve, who requires eight tissues and twenty-seven Gesundheits before he is done. Sneezing = the subject of the verb exhausts. Valerie hates cooking because scraping burnt gook out of pans always undermines her enjoyment of the food. Cooking = the direct object of the verb hates. We gave bungee jumping a chance. Bungee jumping = indirect object of the verb gave. Joelle bit her tongue instead of criticizing her prom date's powder blue tuxedo. Criticizing = object of the preposition instead of. Omar's least favorite sport is water-skiing because a bad spill once caused him to lose his swim trunks. Water-skiing = the subject complement of the verb is.