3.8.8

Participle Clauses

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Participles

Participles are verb forms that don’t express tense. In other words, participles don’t tell you if the verb is in the past, present or future tense.

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Types of participle

  • There are 2 types of participle:
    • The present participle which always ends in ‘ing’.
    • The past participle which normally ends in ‘ed’ (unless it’s an irregular verb).
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Present participles

  • Present participles are verbs that don’t express tense and end in ‘ing’.
  • E.g. In ‘running on the beach, I felt great’, 'running' is the present participle.
    • The word 'running' doesn’t tell you when the action is taking place but 'running' is still an action.
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Past participles

  • The past participle normally ends in ‘ed’ (unless it’s an irregular verb).
  • E.g. In ‘excited to be voted in, Elizabeth jumped for joy’, 'excited' is the past participle.
    • The word 'excited' doesn’t tell us when it happened but it is still a verb.
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Irregular past participles

  • The past participle normally ends in ‘ed’ (unless it’s an irregular verb).
  • E.g. In ‘broken by the exam, Simon cried’, 'broken' is the past participle.
    • The word 'broken' doesn’t tell us when the action happened but it is still an action.
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Participle phrases

  • A phrase contains a verb, or a subject, but NOT both.
  • Phrases CANNOT stand alone as a sentence.
  • A complete sentence needs to have a main clause (subject and verb).
  • Participle phrases are phrases that contain
    • Participle verbs.
    • But no subject.
  • E.g. 'Understanding the game was over, Simon dropped to the ground.’

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1Spelling

2Punctuation

3Grammar

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