Participle

We read about the term participle somewhere around in grade 2 or 3 when our English teacher was telling us something about the tenses. Participle is a common term in English grammar and one should know and understand what it means to have good command over speaking and writing good English.

Today, in our article, we will discuss about the meaning of the word participle and how we can use in correctly in sentences so that our readers can get the right meaning of what we are trying to convey.

Participle

Participle is a word that comes in existing by modifying a verb. In English grammar, two types of participles exist, which include present participle and past participle.

Each verb of English language has five forms. Among these five forms, two are present participle and past participle.

Example:

He was juggling well.

In the above sentence, the verb juggling is the modified form of the verb juggle. We add the -ing at its end to make it participle and the was before it tells us that this is the past participle form of the verb. This type of verb form is used to express continuity of an action in a sentence.

Present Participle

A verb is said to be in present participle form when the use of is/are indicates the time of action that is taking place right now and is not an event of the past. The verb is changed to the participle form by the addition of –ing at it end.

Example:

The cat is drinking milk.

In the above example, drinking is verb that is modified to its participle state by the addition of –ing at its end and the use of is before it let us know that the action described is taking place in real time.

Past Participle

In past participle, the third form of verb is used that is the addition of –ed at the end of the regular verbs or the general third form of irregular verbs.

For example, cry is changed to cried whereas sing is changed to sung. This implies that the action described in the sentence is a matter of the past.

Example:

The baby cried all night.

The above simple example indicates the use of past participle which we can identify by the use of –ed after the verb. This implies that the baby is no longer crying but he cried in the past.