participle
part of speech
noun (a participle, participles)
meaning for a pupil
1) A participle is a form of a verb used to make tenses or used like an adjective. tree →
2) The present participle ends in «-ing»: running, eating, singing. tree →
3) The past participle often ends in «-ed», «-en» or has a special form: walked, eaten, sung, gone. tree →
sense in the lessons
In English grammar lessons participles help make tenses: «I am running» (present participle), «I have eaten» (past participle), «The window was broken» (passive). They also act like adjectives: «a crying baby», «a broken toy». In SATs grammar tests pupils are asked to find or use them. Phrases: «present participle», «past participle», «participle phrase».
examples
- In «She is singing», singing is the present participle. tree →
- In «I have finished my homework», finished is the past participle. tree →
- The past participle of «go» is «gone». tree →
- «A broken window» uses the past participle as an adjective. tree →
- Write the past participle of «write»: written. tree →
- Some verbs have odd participles, such as swim, swam, swum. tree →
- «Running late, we jumped in the car» starts with a participle phrase. tree →
note
Countable. Irregular verbs have past participles you must learn (see, saw, seen; take, took, taken). Trap: «I have went» is wrong in Standard English; it is «I have gone». Another trap: «I seen it» uses the participle without «have»; Standard English is «I saw it» or «I have seen it».
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «participle» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.