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Participles are the fruit salad of the English language. Okay, they’re not delicious, and you don’t take them to picnics. But they do assume numerous forms for a powerful little verb. Because they can be verbs, adjectives, perfect form, and progressive, many people have a hard time pinning down exactly what they are.
If you are confused about what precisely a participle is, you’re in the right place! This post contains all the significant rules (and a couple of the small, random ones) and will have you seamlessly, including the correct participles in your writing in no time.
Let’s get started!
Before we dig into all of the different forms of participles, we should probably define them first. A participle is a word that is derived from a verb but can function as an adjective or part of a verb phrase to create a verb tense.
A participle will use a verb (like jumping) but will assume a different role in the clause for jumping to conclusions.
There is one more thing we should cover, and that’s the difference between active and passive forms. Active voice is the preferred form in writing, which is when the subject of the sentence is performing the action. Passive voice the subject receives the action.
The passive voice usually uses more words, can be vague, and requires too many prepositional phrases to move the writing forward.
In the case of participle clauses, there are certain forms (like past participle clauses), that allow the use of passive voice.
A present participle clause has many jobs. At its core, when you add an –ing to the base of the verb (that is also a subject), you will create a present participle.
Present participles always end in –ing. They appear in three different scenarios, present progressive, past progressive, and future progressive tense.
Each of these forms is correct in terms of the present participle rules; however, there are other rules to consider when using present participles clauses.
One note: A present participle can replace an active voice finite relative clause. The noun before the participle is the force of action.
Perfect participle clauses demonstrate an action that was finished before the main clause. This is a sequential clause and can be written in either active or passive form.
If the two events do not immediately follow each other or if the first action happens over some time, you should use the perfect participle instead of the present participle.
It is common for participle clauses to include words ending in –ing. These words generally follow conjunctions and prepositions such as before, after, instead of, on, since, when, while, etc.
The world of participles is a complicated and vast concept that has a lot of rules and details. Do things like participles confuse you? Do they make it hard to write clear sentences that engage your reader? You’re not alone! These complex topics evade even the most fluent English speakers.
The English language has a lot of usage rules that are confusing to apply but can make the difference between jumbled and messy writing and high-quality writing.
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Participle clauses also make notes about if their clauses are finite or non-finite. Finite clauses must contain a verb, which will indicate which tense is being used. They can be either the main clause or a subordinate clause. Non-finite clauses have a verb that doesn’t indicate tense.
You typically will only see non-finite verbs in subordinate clauses. We must use context clues from the main clause to determine what the tense of the sentence is.
Participles in English are a way for a writer to more clearly articulate their thoughts to their reader. When we use them in writing, we can capture if we’re speaking in the present or past tense, and by transitioning the verbs into other functional parts of speech, we are transforming the words into thoughts that we can use in our writing.
Since we covered a lot, let’s review:
Understanding the rules of the English language takes some time, but with a little work and using guides like this, you will be well on your way to writing essays that wow your friends and teachers!
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