Grammar Tips & Articles »

present-participial phrase

This Grammar.com article is about present-participial phrase — enjoy your reading!


1:00 min read
30,594 Views
  Ed Good  —  Grammar Tips
Font size:

All main verbs have a present-participial form. Just add ‑ing and you've got a present participle. Sometimes you have to drop a silent ‑e as in writing. And sometimes you double an ending consonant, as in occurring.

The present participle can form a present-participial phrase. If the present-participial verb is transitive, the phrase can have an object in it, as in winning the case.

The present-participial phrase usually acts as an adjective. It can come at the beginning of a sentence, in the middle of a sentence, or at the end of a sentence. When you start a sentence with a present-participial phrase, make certain that the grammatical subject of the sentence is the agent of that verbal activity. Otherwise, you will have written a dangling participle. Here are examples of a present-participial phrase beginning a sentence, coming inside a sentence, and ending a sentence:

Trying to impress his boss, the employee worked late each night. The other man, carrying a package, jumped aboard the car. The scales struck the plaintiff, causing injuries for which she sues.

Finally, a present-participial phrase can act as a noun. When it does, it's called a gerund.

See gerund. See also infinitive phrase and past-participial phrase.

Rate this article:

Have a discussion about this article with the community:

4 Comments
  • Anas Mahfut
    Anas Mahfut
    Indonesia’s first two confirmed COVID-19 patients claim that media coverage and discussion on social media have taken a greater toll on them than the disease itself, saying that numerous breaches of privacy and the resulting stigma have left them “mentally drained”. (The Jakarta Post)
    Is it just the same as this one?
    Saying that numerous breaches of privacy and the resulting stigma have left them “mentally drained”, Indonesia’s first two confirmed COVID-19 patients claim that media coverage and discussion on social media have taken a greater toll on them than the disease itself.
     
    LikeReply4 years ago
  • Sherry Olson
    Sherry Olson
    I don't understand if the use of the -ing form in this sentence is correct:

    Our current study included the determination of BDE209, which had a higher LOQ (90 pg g-1 ww), implying an overestimation in the UB scenario.

    Does this mean that the LOQ is implying the overestimation or is it correct?
     
    LikeReply4 years ago
  • Cherilyn Orta-Middendorf
    Cherilyn Orta-Middendorf
    I've been trying to understand the proper usage of present-participle, and I have read many articles in the past few days. One of which, I hope, helped me to understand it properly. Like if it's a "dangling participle" it comes out as confusing or impossible.
    In the article, if I can remember correctly, stated, "She ran up the stairs, looking through each room." Which is incorrect, as the blogger wrote.
    If this were the intentional meaning and phrasing, each door would have to be placed by each stair. That sentence, as the blogger showed, would be rewritten, as they had done, into something more comprehendable.
    I understood that when I choose to think of the comma as the word "while", because present-participle is continuous and "occurring" as you have wrote.
    So, when someone told me, that I wrote a sentence that was incorrect, which essentially said (excluding the names that were written and replaced with pronouns - also a different object) "He followed her gaze, seeing a teddy bear." One can't simultaneously follow someone's gaze and at the same time see an object, because they both can't occur at the same time. Unless one could simply split their eyes, and see in multiple directions. They can occur as "step-by-step" though. "He followed her gaze and then saw a teddy bear." Which is still a poor sentence.
    Though occasionally, I can't always mentally replace the comma with "while" for it doesn't always work. But I guess that it often depends on the sentence itself.
     
    LikeReply 15 years ago
  • Paul Mathews
    Paul Mathews
    Short and Sweet
    LikeReply5 years ago

Citation

Use the citation below to add this article to your bibliography:

Style:MLAChicagoAPA

"present-participial phrase." Grammar.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 14 Oct. 2024. <https://www.grammar.com/present-participial-phrase>.

Free, no signup required:

Add to Chrome

Check your text and writing for style, spelling and grammar problems everywhere on the web!

Free, no signup required:

Add to Firefox

Check your text and writing for style, spelling and grammar problems everywhere on the web!

Free Writing Tool:

Instant
Grammar Checker

Improve your grammar, vocabulary, style, and writing — all for FREE!


Quiz

Are you a grammar master?

»
Choose the sentence with correct use of the indefinite article:
A She needs an advice from her friend.
B They adopted a cat last week.
C Few students have completed their homework.
D An owl hooted in the dark night.

Improve your writing now:

Download Grammar eBooks

It’s now more important than ever to develop a powerful writing style. After all, most communication takes place in reports, emails, and instant messages.