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What is a Present Participle?

In linguistics, a participle is a kind of verbal adjective; it indicates that the noun it modifies is a participant in the action that the participle refers to.

In the English language, there are two types of participle:
  • The present participle, also known as the imperfect participle, which is formed by adding the suffix "-ing" to a verb.
  • The past participle, sometimes known as the perfect participle, which is usually the same as the past-tense form, especially for verbs whose past-tense form ends in "-ed".
 

The present participle in English is an active participle; the past participle is sometimes a passive participle.

Most irregular verbs do not follow this pattern for forming past participles. Only modal auxiliary verbs fail to form present participles in English. All others form present participles by adding -ing; even the most irregular verbs do not vary from that pattern. Examples include:

  • Talk's participles are talking and talked (regular)
  • Do's participles are doing and done (irregular)
  • Eat's participles are eating and eaten (irregular)

Participles are adjectives and are often used in front of nouns, as in “I saw a talking Parrot”, “It was a done deal”, and “She sold the crashed car at a gain”.

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