Participle
1. What is a participle?
A participle is a word formed from a verb. Participles can be used as adjectives or nouns. They can also be used to form compound verbs.
2. Examples of Participles
Example 1-
Base Verb: Sneeze
Present Participle: Sneezing
Compound Verb:
We knew Alisa was sick because she was sneezing all night.
- The present participle “sneezing” is used with the verb “was” to form a compound verb.
Adjective:
The sneezing girl woke up everyone at the sleepover.
- The present participle “sneezing” is used as an adjective to describe the girl.
Noun:
I really hate sneezing.
- The present participle “sneezing” is a noun in this sentence. It could be replaced with other nouns like “broccoli” or “bugs.”
Example 2-
Base Verb: Bore
Past Participle: Bored
Compound Verb:
The movie had bored Lonnie to sleep.
- The past participle “bored” is used with the verb “had” to form a compound verb.
Adjective:
The bored boy fell asleep.
- The past participle “bored” is used as an adjective to describe the boy.
- Noun: Remember, past participles cannot be used as nouns. That only works with some present participles.
3. Types of Participles
There are two types of participles: past and present. Past participles are used to describe an action that happened in the past, while present participles are used to describe an action that is happening right now. Both can also be used as adjectives, while present participles can be used as nouns as well.
a. Past Participles
As we mentioned above, participles are formed from verbs.
Step 1:
To form a past participle, you begin with the base verb. A base verb is the plain version of a verb that you would find in a dictionary, like run, jump, sing, play, laugh, cry, kick, and throw.
The next step depends on whether the verb is a regular verb or an irregular verb. Regular verbs follow a regular pattern when changing verb forms. Irregular verbs don’t.
Step 2:
Form a past participle using regular verbs:
For regular verbs, you form a past participle by adding “ed” to the base verb. Jump, play, laugh, and kick are regular verbs. Adding “ed” to the end gives us jumped, played, laughed, and kicked.
Form a past participle using irregular verbs:
Run, sing, cry, and throw are irregular verbs. They don’t follow the typical pattern. The past participles for these verbs are: run, sung, cried, and thrown.
It’s better not to guess the past participle for an irregular verb. Learn and memorize irregular verbs by look them up in the dictionary or online.
Using Past Participles
Past participles have two main uses: They can be used as adjectives, and they can be used to form compound verbs.
An adjective is a word that describes a noun (a person, place, or thing). So when a past participle describes a person, place, or thing, it is being used as an adjective.
A compound verb is a combination of two verbs: an auxiliary verb (also called a “helping verb”) and a participle. Past participles form compound verbs with the auxiliary verbs “has,” “have,” and “had.” The auxiliary verb always comes before the past participle.
For example, let’s take a look at the past participle “kicked.”
As a compound verb:
Jordan had kicked the ball into his neighbor’s yard.
- Remember that past participles form compound verbs with the auxiliary verbs “has,” “have,” and “had.”
- In this case, the past participle “kicked” is used with the auxiliary verb “had” to form a compound verb.
As an adjective:
Jordan went into the yard to get the kicked ball.
- Here, the past participle “kicked” is describing the ball.
- Remember that adjectives describe nouns.
- So in this example, the past participle “kicked,” is used as an adjective.
Keep in mind that only some past participles can be used as adjectives. For example, we can’t use the word “laughed” to describe a noun.
b. Present Participles
Step 1:
To form a present participle, you start with the base verb again. Remember that examples of base verbs include run, jump, sing, play, laugh, cry, kick, and throw.
Step 2:
Next, you add “ing” to the end of the base verb. You now have running, jumping, singing, playing, laughing, crying, kicking, and throwing.
This rule is true for every verb, even irregular verbs.
Using Present Participles
Like past participles, present participles can form compound verbs and can be used as adjectives. However, present participles can also be used as nouns.
A noun is a person, place, or thing. Present participles are sometimes “things” in a sentence, and in these cases they are being used as nouns.
Present participles form compound verbs with forms of the auxiliary verb “be,” such as “am,” “is,” “are,” “was,” and “were.”
For example, we’ll look at the present participle “crying.”
As a compound verb:
My baby sister is crying because she’s hungry.
- Remember that present participles form compound verbs with forms of the auxiliary verb “be,” such as am, is, are, was, and were.
- In this example, the present participle “crying” is used with the auxiliary verb “is” to form a compound
As an adjective:
Mom got up to soothe the crying baby.
- The word “crying” describes the baby in the present.
- So in this example, the present participle “crying” is used as an adjective.
As a noun:
I covered my ears because I hate the sound of crying.
- In the third example, the present participle “crying” is used as a noun.
- Remember that a noun is a person, place, or thing. Here, the word “crying” is a thing (a sound).
- You can tell that “crying” is a noun here because it could be replaced with other nouns, as in, “I hate the sound of sirens,” or, “I hate the sound of drums.”
Both present participles and past participles are formed from verbs. Present participles can be used to form compound verbs, and they can sometimes be used as nouns or adjectives. Past participles can form compound verbs and sometimes be used as adjectives, but they aren’t used as nouns.
