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This video is all about taking a verb and making it not-a-verb.
That is to say, we derive a new use from a verb.
In this case, we are talking about taking a verb and making it into a modifier of some sort.
Believe it or not, it is one of the easiest processes in all of the grammar of Spanish.
So what, exactly, is a participle?
To put it briefly, a participle is when we take a verb and make it into a modifier of some kind, either an adjective or an adverb.
In Spanish, just as in English, we have two different types of participles: present participles and past participles.
We will look at each one separately, as they have very different roles.
Present participles are also called gerunds in many grammatical explanations.
In English, it is the ‘-ing’ form of the verb, like ‘walking, talking, singing’, etc.
In Spanish they have a different form: ending in ‘-ando’ or ‘-iendo’.
This is a pretty easy grammatical element to form; even our highly irregular buddies ser and estar are normal,
as are other normally-problematic verbs, such as tener and poner.
In fact, there are really no true irregular present participles.
However, there are a couple of quirks.
There are some verbs that will have a -y- instead of -i- in their gerund suffix;
these are -er and -ir verbs that have a stem ending in a vowel.
So verbs like leer and oír will have a -y- in their forms.
Even ir has this y- to start off.
There are stem-changing forms in the gerund, but the verbs here are some of our more familiar verbs:
they are -ir verbs that stem-change.
So dormir and pedir have a minor alteration.
See? Not that bad, right?
We use gerunds, or present participles, in two main grammatical functions.
The first is in the progressive forms.
We focus an entire video on this construction.
The second, and less common usage, is when we use the present participle as an adverb, to describe the motion of the action.
This is something we will come back to in another video down the line.
It is really important to note that these present participles never agree with anything—and that makes sense,
since they are not modifying a noun.
Therefore, there is no gender or number to pick up on.
Now for past participles.
They are equally as easy to form: simply add - ado or -ido to the stem.
And just like before, there are very few irregularities; most all of the typically irregular verbs have a very normal past participle.
Ok, there are a few irregular past participle forms, but this is pretty much the entire list.
But we can also make compounds from these verbs,
and those compounds include the irregularities of the original stem.
We primarily use past participles in two roles.
First, when used with haber they form the perfect form of any verb conjugation.
More on that later in many other videos.
But the other role, and the one that you may already know, is as stative adjectives,
meaning they describe the state of being or emotion of a person.
In fact, you have been learning a series of adjectives since you started down this Spanish language journey
that actually have been past participles.
These adjectives all describe states and emotions,
and you have learned them up until now as such— adjectives that describe states of being.
But in truth, these adjectives all were formed from verbs, and they all have verb counterparts in the Spanish language.
This procedure is frequently done in Spanish, just as it is in English and other languages:
we create adjectives from verbs to create words to describe states of being.
Spanish is no different.
This is just a quick introduction to participles.
We have many other videos in which we see them in action.
As you progress in your learning of Spanish, you will see present and past participles in many roles.
Please like the video and leave any comments or questions that you have.
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¡Hasta pronto! ¡Adiós!