THE PARTICIPLE

Examples of present participles (shaded):

• A laughing man is stronger than a suffering man. (Gustave Flaubert, 1821-1880)
• If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man. (Mark Twain, 1835-1910)
• The only thing that comes to a sleeping man is dreams. (Tupac Shakur)                   

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Recognize a participle when you see one.

Consult a dictionary whenever you are unsure of a verb's past participle form.

Participles come in two varieties: past and present. They are two of the five forms or principal parts that every verb has. Look at the charts below.

Know the functions of participles.

Participles have three functions in sentences. They can be components of multipart verbs, or they can function as adjectives or nouns.

Participles in Multipart Verbs

A verb can have as many as four parts. When you form multipart verbs, you use a combination of auxiliary verbs and participles. Look at the examples below:

Our pet alligator ate Mrs. Olsen's poodle.

Ate = simple past tense [no participle].

With a broom, Mrs. Olsen was beating our alligator over the head in an attempt to retrieve her poodle.

Was = auxiliary verb; beating = present participle.

Our pet alligator has been stalking neighborhood pets because my brother Billy forgets to feed the poor reptile.

Has = auxiliary verb; been = past participle; stalking = present participle.

Our pet alligator should have been eating Gator Chow, crunchy nuggets that Billy leaves for him in a bowl.

Should, have = auxiliary verbs; been = past participle; eating = present participle.

Participles as Adjectives

Past and present participles often function as adjectives that describe nouns. Here are some examples:

The crying baby drew a long breath and sucked in a spider crouching in the corner of the crib.

Which baby? The crying baby. Which spider? The one that was crouching in the corner.

The mangled pair of sunglasses, bruised face, broken arm, and bleeding knees meant Genette had taken another spill on her mountain bike.

Which pair of sunglasses? The mangled pair. Which face? The bruised one. Which arm? The broken one. Which knees? The bleeding ones.

Participles as Nouns

Present participles can function as nouns—the subjects, direct objects, indirect objects, objects of prepositions, and subject complements in sentences. Whenever a present participle functions as a noun, you call it a gerund.
Take a look at these examples:

Sneezing exhausts Steve, who requires eight tissues and twenty-seven Gesundheits before he is done.

Sneezing = the subject of the verb exhausts.

Valerie hates cooking because scraping burnt gook out of pans always undermines her enjoyment of the food.

Cooking = the direct object of the verb hates.

We gave bungee jumping a chance.

Bungee jumping = indirect object of the verb gave.

Joelle bit her tongue instead of criticizing her prom date's powder blue tuxedo.

Criticizing = object of the preposition instead of.

Omar's least favorite sport is water-skiing because a bad spill once caused him to lose his swim trunks.

Water-skiing = the subject complement of the verb is.

Participle Phrases

It is really common to see participles in participle phrases. A participle phrase also acts like an adjective. In the examples below, the participle phrases are shaded and the participles are in bold:

• The man carrying the bricks is my father.
(The participle phrase carrying the bricks describes the the man.)
• She showed us a plate of scones crammed with cream.
(The participle phrase crammed with cream describes the scones.)
• Whistling the same tune as always, Ted touched the front of his cap with his forefinger as she dismounted.
(The participle phrase Whistling the same tune as always describes Ted.)
• Stunned by the blow, Mike quickly gathered his senses and searched frantically for the pepper spray.
(The participle phrase Stunned by the blow describes Mike.)

Some more examples of present participles (shaded):

• A laughing man is stronger than a suffering man. (Gustave Flaubert, 1821-1880)
• If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man. (Mark Twain, 1835-1910)
• The only thing that comes to a sleeping man is dreams. (Tupac Shakur)

Sometimes adjectival participles come to be used as pure adjectives, without any verbal characteristics (deverbal adjectives). They then no longer take objects or other modifiers typical of verbs, possibly taking instead modifiers that are typical of adjectives, such as the English word very. The difference is illustrated by the following examples:

• The subject interesting him at the moment is Greek history.
• Greek history is an interesting subject.

In the first sentence interesting is used as a true participle; it acts as a verb, taking the object him, and forming the participial phrase interesting him at the moment, which then serves as an adjective phrase modifying the noun subject. However, in the second sentence interesting has become a pure adjective; it stands in an adjective's typical position before the noun, it can no longer take an object, and it could be accompanied by typical adjective modifiers such as very or quite (or in this case the prefix un-). Similar examples are "interested people", "a frightened rabbit", "fallen leaves", "meat-eating animals".

Know the functions of participles.

Participles have three functions in sentences. They can be components of multipart verbs, or they can function as adjectives or nouns.

Participles in Multipart Verbs

A verb can have as many as four parts. When you form multipart verbs, you use a combination of auxiliary verbs and participles. Look at the examples below:

Participles as Adjectives

Past and present participles often function asadjectives that describe nouns. Here are some examples:

The crying baby drew a long breath and sucked in a spider crouching in the corner of the crib.

Which baby? The crying baby. The broken one. Which knees? The bleeding ones.

Participles as Nouns

Present participles can function as nouns—the subjects, direct objects, indirect objects, objects of prepositions, and subject complements in sentences. Whenever a present participle functions as a noun, you call it a gerund.

Take a look at these examples:

Sneezing exhausts Steve, who requires eight tissues and twenty-seven Gesundheits before he is done.

Sneezing = the subject of the verb exhausts.

Valerie hates cooking because scraping burnt gook out of pans always undermines her enjoyment of the food.

Cooking = the direct object of the verb hates.

We gave bungee jumping a chance.

Bungee jumping = indirect object of the verb gave.

Joelle bit her tongue instead ofcriticizing her prom date's powder blue tuxedo.

Criticizing = object of the preposition instead of.

Omar's least favorite sport is water-skiing because a bad spill once caused him to lose his swim trunks.

Water-skiing = the subject complement of the verb is.