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What Is A Participial Phrase
What Is A Participial Phrase
Grown in the Amazon rainforest, uña de gato is famous worldwide for its
healing properties.
Here, the participial phrase “Grown in the Amazon rainforest” describes the
noun uña de gato, a type of plant. The most important part of this participial
phrase is the word grown, the past participle of the verb grow. Participial
phrases get their name from this participle, which explains an action the noun
did or is doing.
Participial phrases can also use a negative like not to make an entire
participial phrase negative, describing an action that doesn’t or didn’t happen.
Not knowing whether it could fly, the young bird jumped out of the nest for the
first time.
Keep in mind that the participles in a participial phrase are separate from the
main predicate of the sentence. Although verbals, the participles in participial
phrases are not active verbs; they’re just words in an adjective phrase.
A past participle phrase is a participial phrase that uses the past participle of a
verb, usually the -ed form unless the verb is an irregular verb.
Unlike with present participle phrases, the noun with a past participle phrase
is receiving the action, not doing it. That means they can be used only with
the participles of transitive verbs, which are verbs that use an object.
In this participial phrase example, known is the past participle of the irregular
and transitive verb know. Keep in mind that Keanu Reeves is not doing the
action of knowing; instead, he is “being known.” In this sentence, he is the
object of the participle while simultaneously being the subject of the sentence.
In addition to the present and past, you can also use participial phrases with
the perfect tense. Perfect participle phrases are used to show that the noun
completed an action in the past, before the action of the active verb. They are
used like a present participle phrase, but they describe finished actions
instead of ongoing ones.
A perfect participle phrase includes the auxiliary verb have followed by the
past participle of the active verb, just like the perfect verb tense. In
construction, perfect participial phrases use have in its present participle
form having.
In this participial phrase example, the auxiliary verb have uses its present
participle having, while the verb eat uses its past participle, eaten.
Remember that the action in the perfect participle phrase happens before the
action of the active verb, so Andew ate tacos in Mexico before he stopped
enjoying Taco Bell. In this way, perfect participial phrases can show a cause-
and-effect relationship.
Participial phrases should come directly before or after the noun they
describe. That’s how readers and listeners know which noun the participial
phrase is talking about.
The noun phrase “the dog” comes directly after the past participle phrase
“frightened by the thunder,” so we know the dog is the one that is frightened.
Placing the participial phrase next to the wrong noun is a common error called
a misplaced modifier, also known as a dangling modifier. If a participial
phrase is placed next to the wrong noun, it changes the meaning of the
sentence.
Incorrect: The dog hid behind the couch frightened by the thunder.
Here, the participial phrase is placed directly next to the noun couch, which
means the couch was frightened. Although you can guess the intended
meaning, it’s still a grammatical error and incorrect. For more help, see our
guide on how to fix a dangling modifier.
Waiting for his friend to arrive, Pedro answered emails on his phone.
Occasionally, you can put a participial phrase after the subject (if it’s not a
pronoun). In this case, you use a comma both before and after the participial
phrase, unless it’s restrictive.
Pedro, waiting for his friend to arrive, answered emails on his phone.
However, this usage is for strategic or advanced writing; it’s not always
recommended. That’s especially true when the subject is a pronoun. Placing
the participial phrase after a subject pronoun sounds awkward in English.
Incorrect: He, waiting for his friend to arrive, answered emails on his phone.
Correct: Waiting for his friend to arrive, he answered emails on his phone.
Restrictive participial phrases always come after the noun they modify. Unlike
nonrestrictive phrases, restrictive phrases do not use commas, even when
modifying the subject.
For all other nouns in a sentence besides the subject, put the participial
phrase after the noun it modifies.
Luckily, the professor didn’t see us coming in late, or he would have given us
a warning.
This even includes nouns that are part of other participial phrases.
Dressed in the outfit chosen by her parents, Alice covered her face so
people wouldn’t see her.
There are two participial phrases in this sentence. The first is the larger one,
“Dressed in the outfit chosen by her parents,” which describes the sentence’s
subject, Alice. The second is the smaller one, “chosen by her parents,” which
describes the noun outfit within the first participial phrase. Notice how the
participial phrase that describes the subject uses a comma, but the other one
doesn’t.
The main difference between participial phrases and gerund phrases is how
they’re used. Participial phrases act as adjectives and modify nouns, whereas
gerund phrases act as individual nouns.
Participial phrases modify nouns that are already in the sentence, whereas
gerund phrases act as nouns in a sentence. You can tell them apart by
identifying whether or not they describe another noun—participial phrases are
placed near the nouns they relate to, so if there’s no relevant noun that the
phrase describes, it’s a gerund phrase.
A participial phrase is a type of modifier that uses the participle form of a verb
to describe a noun. For example, in the sentence “Grown by Ed Currie,
Pepper X is the hottest chili pepper on Earth,” the participial phrase is “Grown
by Ed Currie.” Typically, phrases that start with a present or past participle
and describe a noun are participial phrases.
The main difference between participial phrases and gerund phrases is how
they’re used. Participial phrases act as adjectives and modify nouns, whereas
gerund phrases act as individual nouns.