Participles

A participle is a type of word which is formed from a verb that is used for a variety of purposes or situations, such as an adjective or to form verb tenses. Participles are considered to be a different part of speech than verbs, but they are similar to the verbs they originate.  

For example, the verb talk can be converted into the participles talked and talking. It’s noticeable that those two words look identical to the past and present tense forms of talk, and that’s true. Participles are able to do more functions than verbs or adjectives. 

Past Participles 

For regular verbs, a past participle is typically formed by adding -ed to the end of the root form of the verb. For example, the past participle of the walk is walked.  

Irregular verbs don’t follow this rule at all; for example, the past participle of taking is taken. 

The following are some of the examples of past participles:

• Regular verbs: acted, borrowed, hopped, mumbled, paused, studied, wandered 
• Irregular verbs: caught, done, gotten, had, ridden, seen, understood, worn 

Present Participles 

To form the present participle of a verb, add -ing to the root form of the verb. For example, the present participle of the show is showing. There are few exceptions to this rule; interestingly, even irregular verbs play by the rules when it comes to present participles. For instance, the present participle of the verb, be is being. 

The following are some of the examples of present participles:

• Arriving
• Biting
• Carrying
• Doing
• Entertaining
• Flying
• Guessing
• Inching
• Hoping
• Jutting
• Kissing

Perfect Participles 

The term perfect participle is not a unique third type of participle but a grammatical phrase formed by combining the word having with a past participle. Its used to indicate that one event happened before another. For example: 

Having studied mammals for years, Julie knew how to analyze their behavior from a distance.