A participle is a word made from a and used as an or as part of a . There are two kinds of participles in English:
the present participle: verb + -ing
Used for:
the continuous tenses (e.g. He is running)
describing a noun that performs or does an action (e.g. a sleeping baby)
the past participle: verb + -ed or an form
Used for:
the perfect aspect (e.g. He has walked)
passives (e.g. She was seen)
describing a noun that underwent or experienced an action (e.g. a burnt pancake)
In this post we’ll go through how to form and use both kinds of participles in detail, then we’ll go through all of their major uses. Then, for more advanced learners, we’ll look at how to form different kinds of participle phrases in English.
Now that I’ve saidthat, let’s get down to a concentratedexplanation of the entertaining world of participles in English! Having read that introduction, you can bet that lots of information will be covered!
The words we call participles are actually two verb forms in English:
the present participle (also called the “active participle” or “imperfect participle”)
root
-ing
being, hoping, going, having…
the past participle (also called the “passive participle”)
root
-ed
... or an form
been, hoped, gone, had, walked...
Please don’t be confused by the words “present” and “past”! We use these participles in all three tenses: past, present, and future!
A better way to think of these is as “finished” (past) and “unfinished” (present) participles. Want to learn why? Keep reading!
Let’s get down to brass tacks and look at them one at a time!
To form the present participle, just take the basic of the verb and add -ing! It’s easy! For example:
Root | Present participle |
|---|---|
dance | dancing |
cook | cooking |
study | studying |
cut | cutting |
find | finding |
speak | speaking |
Though present participles are completely regular in speech, there are some special spelling rules to learn. For example:
make → making
cut → cutting
Luckily these rules do not affect pronunciation and they are pretty simple to learn. Have a look at our reference sheet for spelling words with suffixes in English to learn more.
There are two kinds of past participles in English: regular and irregular
Regular participles have a predictable form: root + -ed:
Root | Past participle |
|---|---|
dance | danced |
look | looked |
study | studied |
When we add -ed to the end of an English word, there are some spelling rules you will have to follow. For example:
study → studied
dance → danced
stop → stopped
Luckily these rules do not affect pronunciation and they are pretty simple to learn. Have a look at our reference sheet for spelling words with suffixes in English to learn more.
Irregular participles are a little trickier because they have forms that must be memorized.
There are about 200 irregular verbs in English, and you can find their participles in the third column of most irregular verb lists:
Root | Simple past | Past participle |
|---|---|---|
be | was / were | been |
cut | cut | cut |
have | had | had |
go | went | gone |
speak | spoke | spoken |
Have a look at this chart of irregular verbs in English! We’ve given you two versions:
A version that sorts the verbs by skill level (A1-C2)
A version that sorts the verbs into categories to help you see the different patterns
You will probably first use participles to form the continuous and the perfect in each tense:
I am teaching you participles right now.
You have seen participles used as verb forms!
But we also use participles as adjectives, that is, words that modify nouns:
Use our learning guides to help you understand.
Please clean up the broken glass!
When we use a verb as a noun, we call this a gerund in English! A gerund looks exactly like a present participle (root + -ing), but because it’s used as a noun, we call it something else.
Speaking two languages is important in today’s world
Your reading has improved a lot since last September.
Past participles are also used to form the passive voice in English – sentences where the has an action done to them:
Pedro ate a pear.
A pear was eaten (by Pedro).
In this post we’re looking at the main uses of participles in English, but you will find them in a few other cases as well!
Now, let’s look at each of these uses in detail!
In all three tenses (past, present, and future) participles are used to form verbs in the continuous and perfect aspects. To do this, each participle is used with a specific auxiliary (helping) verb: the present participle goes with auxiliary be and the past participle goes with the auxiliary have.
Continous aspect:
be + present participle
Perfect aspect:
have + past participle
Take a look at how this works in all three tenses!
To use the present participle in the past, present, or future continuous, just change the tense of the auxiliary verb be to the past, present, or future! The present participle does not change.
Mark was playing the piano in the studio yesterday.
We were playing...
I am reading an interesting book right now.
You are reading…
She is reading…
Patty will be entertaining guests at her house tonight.
The continuous aspect is usually used for actions that continue for a period of time, but its use is a little different in each tense. Check out our posts on the present, past, and future continuous to learn more!
To use the past participle in the past, present, or future perfect, just change the tense of the auxiliary verb have to the past, present, or future. The past participle does not change.
Peter had seen that movie many times before.
They have finished their test now.
She has finished…
Muriel will have made twelve apple pies before the end of the week.
The perfect aspect is usually used to talk about something that finishes before an action or time that is the focus of a story.
I have seen this movie before…
…so I know that it is good.
...so I do not need to see it again.
We use the perfect when the fact that an earlier action happened impacts how we understand the event or situation we are focused on. Read more in our posts on past, present, and future perfect!
The perfect continuous tenses in English use both a past participle and a present participle!
I had been wondering about that!
Both present participles and past participles are commonly used as adjectives. That means that a participle can modify a noun (or noun phrase!), adding more information about it
Just like any adjective, participles as adjectives are usually placed before the noun they modify:
adjective
noun
Patty doesn’t like raw fish.
There was a large cat in the window.
participle as adjective
noun
Patty likes fried fish.
There was a sleeping cat in the window.
Like other adjectives, past participles, are often placed after a linking verb like be or seem:
linking verb
adjective
That fish is raw.
That cat looks sleepy.
linking verb
past participle
This fish is fried.
This cat looks tired.
But present participles usually do not follow a verb (except for be in a continous tense!)
❌ This cat looks sleeping.
❌ My eggs seemed burning.
✅ My eggs were burning.
Past participles are used to describe nouns that underwent a finished action, but present participles describe nouns that are doing the action. For example:
Past participles:
This is fried fish.
This is a forgotten toy.
This is a grown man.
This is a painted house.
Present participles:
This is a sleeping baby
There is a leaking sink.
This is a running horse.
This is a growing boy.
Gerunds (verbs used as nouns) can be used to describe the purpose of a noun. Because gerunds look just like present participles (verb + -ing), you’ll need to use context to decide the meaning:
a cleaning rag:
✅ a rag for cleaning (gerund)
❌ the rag is cleaning (participle)
a growing boy:
❌ a boy for growing (gerund)
✅ the boy is growing (participle)
Use the past participle after the verb be to form the English passive voice:
be
past participle
The subject of a passive verb is the noun that undergoes an action, not the noun that does the action:
The ball was kicked.
The book will be purchased for John.
Mary is being given a present.
Notice that the past participle does not change when you change the tense of be!
In English, we use the passive voice when the object of an action is the topic of a sentence (the noun a sentence is “about”). For example:
I was talking to Mary’s mom today, and she said that Mary was caught using her cell phone in class so she got punished.
A participle phrase is a phrase that begins with either a past or present participle followed by some associated words. There are actually two types of participle phrases in English:
“Classic” participle phrases (surrounded by commas)
Remembering to bring his lunch, Tom left the house.
Reduced relative clauses (not surrounded by commas)
Rita visited a portrait painted by da Vinci.
Let’s talk about each type, and then we’ll talk about “dangling participles,” which are a common writing error that happens when you confuse the two!
A “classic” participle phrase is a participle phrase that is surrounded by commas and can only describe the subject of a sentence. These are often used in writing, but are less common in speech.
A classic participle phrase can come in three main places:
At the beginning of the clause:
Exhausted by the hike, Tom fell onto the sofa and groaned.
Remembering to bring his lunch, Tom left the house.
After the verb and object / at the end of the clause:
Tom fell onto the sofa, exhausted by the hike.
Tom left the house, remembering to bring his lunch.
After the subject (uncommon):
Tom, exhausted by the hike, fell onto the sofa.
Tom, remembering to bring his lunch, left the house.
Notice that these participle phrases are always separated out by commas, and they always describe the subject.
A perfect participle is a type of “classic” participle phrase that is formed from a verb in the perfect aspect. So they look like this:
having
past participle
having slept all night...
having forgotten his teddy bear..
The perfect participle tells us about something that the subject of the sentence completed before the main action. Look:
Having finished her work, Mary turned off her computer and left the office.
A reduced relative clause can also begin with a participle, but these follow different grammar rules. This is because they are actually just English relative clauses with some words deleted. For example:
Full relative clause | Reduced relative clause |
|---|---|
Rita watched her friend who was cutting the grass. | Rita watched her friend cutting the grass. |
Rita bought a table that was made of wood. | Rita bought a table made of wood. |
Recall that relative clauses in English are clauses (with a subject and a verb) that describe a noun.
If the verb in the relative clause is be and it is followed by a participle, you can delete the and the verb be. This is how we create reduced relative clauses that begin with participles!
But because reduced relative clauses are still relative clauses, they follow the rules that relative clauses follow. For example:
Reduced relative clauses can describe any noun in the sentence, not just the subject:
Rita watched her neighbor cutting the grass.
Rita bought a table made from wood.
Reduced relative clauses always come right after the noun phrase they describe, but they do not need to be separated by commas.
❌ Cutting the grass, Rita watched her neighbor.
A dangling participle is a common writing error in English that happens when it is unclear which noun a participle phrase describes.
Sometimes, this is because the noun the participle phrase describes is completely missing from the sentence:
❌ Walking in the garden, weeds sprouted everywhere.
Fixing this is easy! Just make sure there is a subject in the sentence!
✅ Walking in the garden, Mary saw weeds everywhere.
Other times it happens because you are using a “classic” participle phrase without the proper punctuation (no commas), so it looks like it is a reduced relative clause!
❌ Tom watched the zebra sitting on the porch.
This second kind of dangling participle is easy to fix in writing (just add the commas!) but it can be confusing in speech, because we cannot see the commas! Even in writing, it is better to rephrase a sentence like this, because they can confuse readers.
If you want to be very clear, it is best to put a “classic” participle phrase close to the noun it describes, if you can!
✅ Sitting on the porch, Tom watched the zebra.
A third kind of dangling participle comes about because a few English prepositions come from present participles. For example:
Rita watched her neighbor using binoculars.
This sentence is correct, but has two different meanings:
If we read the word using as a participle, this is a reduced relative clauses, so the sentence means:
Rita watched her neighbor who was using binoculars.
But if we read the word using as a , then the phrase using binoculars tells us how the watching happened instead. So the sentence means:
Rita watched her neighbor by means of binoculars.
To clarify sentences like these, it is best to just rephrase what you are trying to say!
Good for you! You’ve discovered a lot more about the participle in English!
Having read this post, you’ve seen that:
there are two types of participles in English:
the present participle (root + -ing)
the past participle (root + -ed / irregular form)
participles are used to form…
the continuous tenses (be + present participle)
the perfect tenses (have + past participle)
participles are also used as adjectives to modify nouns
participles can be combined with other words to make participle phrases, which fall into two main groups:
“classic” participle phrases → separated by commas, describe the subject
reduced relative clauses → no commas, follow the noun they describe
That was a bunch of information there! If you’re ready to practice, have a look at our English participle activities. We’ve also got a useful chart that covers comma use with participles and participle phrases.
