Participles and Their Kinds

What Are Participles?

A participle is a form of a verb that can function as an adjective or as part of a verb phrase. Participles are commonly used to describe nouns, form different tenses, and create participial phrases.

There are three main types of participles in English:

1. Present Participle

The present participle is formed by adding -ing to a verb.

Form:
Verb + -ing

Examples:

• run → running
• sing → singing
• write → writing
• dance → dancing

Examples in sentences:

• The crying baby needs attention.
• The shining stars looked beautiful.
• She is reading a book.

In the first two sentences, crying and shining describe nouns, so they function as adjectives. In the third sentence, reading is part of the present continuous verb phrase is reading.

2. Past Participle

The past participle is generally the third form (V3) of a verb.

Regular verbs usually end in -ed, while irregular verbs have different forms.

Examples:

• work → worked → worked
• play → played → played
• write → wrote → written
• break → broke → broken
• eat → ate → eaten

Examples in sentences:

• The broken window needs to be repaired.
• The written instructions were clear.
• She has finished her homework.
• The cake was eaten by the children.

Here, broken and written describe nouns, while finished and eaten form part of verb phrases.

3. Perfect Participle

The perfect participle is formed with:

having + past participle

It shows that one action was completed before another action.

Examples:

• Having finished his work, Rahul went home.
• Having eaten dinner, they went for a walk.
• Having completed the project, she submitted it to her teacher.
• Having studied hard, the students felt confident.

In the sentence:

Having finished her homework, Riya went to bed.

The perfect participle phrase having finished her homework tells us that Riya finished her homework before she went to bed.

Summary

Quick Comparison

• Present participle: The smiling girl waved at me.
• Past participle: The broken chair was repaired.
• Perfect participle: Having completed the work, he left the office.