PARTICIPLES AND PARTICIPIAL PHRASE
A participle is another type of verbal that acts as an adjective in a sentence. It ends with “-ing” (if present tense) and “-ed” (if past tense). It clearly modifies nouns or pronouns. There are two types of participles, namely, present participles and past participles. Present participles end in –ing, while past participles ending in -ed, -en, -d, -t, -n, or –ne, like baked, eaten, dealt, and other action words.
Present participles are verbs that end with “-ing”. Let’s not be confused between Gerunds and Present Participles. Again, gerund acts as a noun (subject) while present participle acts as an adjective (descriptive). Present participles modify a noun. A few of the examples are the following:
Smiling, the man shook the hand of the love of his life.
Studying as a pre-medicine student, Gab drank her hot coffee and sighed.
Standing, the girl smiled at a boy on the street.
Past participles are past tense verbs that act as an adjective. The examples are the following:
The burned food was eaten by the kid.
The vaccinated baby cries in the hospital emergency room.
Chopped into smaller pieces, the meat was put into the frying pan.
Remember, adjectives describe or modify.
- burned food (burn = verb, food = noun)
- vaccinated baby (vaccinated = verb, baby = noun)
Phrases are groups of words without nouns, verbs, or adjectives. It is not a complete sentence. Participial phrases are used to create a complete sentence with participles. These are the examples of participial phrases used in the examples above that we can dissect:
- Studying as a pre-medicine student, Gab drank her hot coffee and sighed. (present)
Participle: Studying
Noun: Gab
Participial Phrase: Studying as a pre-medicine student
The rest of the sentence: “…drank her hot coffee and sighed.”
- Chopped into smaller pieces, the meat was put into the frying pan. (past)
Participle: Chopped
Noun: Meat
Participial Phrase: Chopped into smaller pieces
The rest of the sentence: “…was put into the frying pan.”
Participles and participial phrases are not difficult to create if you will identify first the verb and noun that you will be going to use in your sentence. Clearly, it consists of modifiers, objects, and other complements.
