The Participle

What are participles?

A participle is a word formed from a verb
which can be used as an adjective.
Participle is a word used to add extra meaning to
the sentence.
There are three kinds of participles in English:
present participle, past participle and
perfect participle.
 Present Participle
• The present participle is often used when we
want to express an active action.
• In English we add -ing to the infinitive of the verb.
Examples:
I go running every morning.
He was singing.
 Use of the present participle
o In the Progressive Tenses :
e.g. He is reading a book.
o Gerund :
e.g. Reading books is fun.
o Adjective:
e.g. Look at the reading boy.
o Together with other words :
e.g. He sat reading in the corner.
He came reading around the corner.
 Past Participle
The past participle is often used when we want to
express a passive action.
In English we add -ed to the infinitive of regular
verbs. We use the 3rd column of the table of the
irregular verbs.

e.g. He felt disappointed

Look at the cup broken of you
 Use of the past participle
o Perfect Tenses :
e.g. He has forgotten the pencil.
o Passive voice:
e.g, A house is built.
o Adjective :
e.g. Look at the washed car.
o Together with other words :
e.g. The car washed yesterday is blue
Compounds with the past
participle
This combination is also known as
perfect participle. It is used to form
an active sentence with the past
participle. There is a time gap between
the actions.
 Past participle and having
• Having read the book the boy came out of the room.
One action happened after the other.

Present participle

• The boy came reading out of the room

Both actions happened at the same time
 Perfect Participle
• The perfect participle can be used to shorten or combine clauses
that have the same subject if …
• … one action (the one where the perfect participle is used) is
completed before the next action starts.
Ex.: She bought a bike and cycled home. – Having bought a bike, she
cycled home.
• … one action has been going on for a period of time when
another action starts.
Ex: He had been living there for such a long time that he didn't want
to move to another town. – Having lived there for such a long time, he
didn't want to move to another town.
  Participle Clauses
If a clause is shortened using a participle
construction, the clause is called participle
clause.

Ex: Watching TV, she forgot everything around her.

In English, participle clauses are mainly used in

writing in order to put a lot of information into
one sentence.