Participles

Participles, Participle constructions

1. Use

1. to shorten relative clauses
2. to make one sentence out of two
3. after verbs of ›perception‹ (e.g. see, watch, hear, listen to, smell, feel)
4. after verbs of ›rest‹ and ›movement‹ (e.g. run, go, come, stay, stand, lie, sit)
5. after the verb have
6. instead of a subordinate clause

2. Form

• Present participle: an exciting race
• Past participle: excited people

3. Examples

1. The cars which are produced in Japan are nice.
   The cars produced in Japan are nice.
2. I saw the man. He came to the shop.
   I saw the man coming to the shop.
3. I saw the car coming round the corner.
4. The girl sat sleeping on the sofa.
5. I have my clothes washed.
6. When they went to Texas they expected a better job.
   Going to Texas they expected a better job.

Present Participle, Past Participle, Perfect Participle

1. Present participle

The present participle is often used when we want to express an active action. In English we add -ing to the infinitive of the verb.

1.1. Use of the present participle

• Progressive Tenses

  He is reading a book.
  He was reading a book.

• Gerund

  Reading books is fun.
  He likes reading books.

• Adjective

  Look at the reading boy.

• Together with other words

  He came reading around the corner.
  He sat reading in the corner.
  I saw him reading.

2. Past participle

The past participle is often used when we want to express a passive action. In English we add -ed to the infinitive of regular verbs. We use the 3rd column of the table of the irregular verbs.

2.1. Use of the past participle

• Perfect Tenses

  He has forgotten the pencil.
  He had forgotten the pencil.

• Passiv voice

  A house is built.
  A house was built.

• Adjective

  Look at the washed car.

• Together with other words

  The car washed yesterday is blue.
  He had his car washed.

3. Compounds with the past participle

This combination is also known as perfect participle. It is used to form an active sentence with the past participle. There is a time gap between the actions.

3.1. Past participle and having

• Having read the book the boy came out of the room.

One action happened after the other.

3.2. Present participle

• The boy came reading out of the room.

Both actions happened at the same time.