Present and Past Participles, a la Shmoop.
Joe is employed as a lifeguard at the beach.
When he isn’t working on his tan…
…or checking out the ladies in their bathing suits…
…he’s perfecting his grasp of present and past participles, because there’s nothing
as attractive as a man with a six pack…
…and amazing grammar.
Present and past participles are two of the five verb forms that verbs can take.
For example, say we have the verb “swim”.
The present participle of this verb is “swimming”…
…and the past participle is “swum”.
Say we have the verb “laugh”.
The present participle of this verb is “laughing”…
…and the part participle is “laughed”.
Now, hopefully we’ve all caught on to the fact that present participles always end in
“i-n-g”.
Is that convenient or what?
Past participles are trickier.
While the past participles of regular verbs end in “e-d”…
…irregular verbs can end in all sorts of different ways.
For example, the past participle of the verb “bring” is “brought”…
…and the past participle of the verb “sing” is “sung”.
So, just be aware that there are no patterns to pick up on when it comes to past participles.
We’ve mentioned that present and past participles make up two of the five verb forms…
…but participles are used for more than just action.
Not only can they appear as multipart verbs…
…they can also be used as nouns or adjectives.
Say we have the sentence, “Joe is boiling beneath the hot summer sun.”
The word “boiling” is the present participle…
…incorporated into a multipart verb by the auxiliary verb “is”.
Note that it doesn’t matter whether the participle in the multipart verb is in the
present or the past tense…
…participles as verbs require auxiliary verbs.
So, we can take our sample sentence, “Joe is boiling beneath the hot summer sun”…
…and change it to read “Joe was boiling beneath the hot summer sun”…
…or “Joe has boiled beneath the hot summer sun”…
…or “Joe was boiled by the hot summer sun.”
“Was boiling”, “has boiled”, and “was boiled” are all combinations of auxiliary
verbs like “was” and “has”…
…and the present participle “boiling” or the past participle “boiled”.
Let’s look at what happens when an irregular verb wants a piece of the action.
Say our sentence is, “Joe is taking a nap on the beach.”
“Taking” is the present participle of the verb “take”…
…while “taken” is the past participle.
So, with this particular irregular verb, we could change our example to read “Joe was
taking a nap on the beach”…
…or “Joe has taken a nap on the beach”.
No matter what combination of auxiliary verbs and present and past participles we use here,
napping on the beach is a great way for a lifeguard to get fired…
…right, Joe?
Let’s move on to how we use participles as nouns.
This only applies to present participles…
…which, when used as nouns, are called gerunds <>.
“Joe enjoys whistling at the pretty girls near his lifeguard station.”
Here, the gerund “whistling” is the direct object of the verb “enjoys”.
“Trotting out into the surf to help the occasional swimmer exhausts Joe.”
Here, the gerund “trotting” is the subject of the verb “exhausts”.
“Joe ate a slice of pizza instead of helping the guy who lost his dog.”
Here, the gerund “helping” is the direct object of the preposition “instead of”…
…and we’re going to guess that our lifeguard hasn’t seen the movie “Jaws”.
The dog was the first to go missing, Joe.
Maybe there’s a shark in the water.
Gerunds can appear all over the place…
…as subjects, direct or indirect objects, subject complements, and objects of prepositions.
Participles as adjectives can also pop up anywhere in a sentence…
…either in past or present tense form.
For example, say we have the sentence, “The mangled body was swept onto the beach by the
crashing wave.”
The present participle “crashing” describes the word “wave”…
…while the past participle “mangled” describes the word “body”.
Here’s another sentence.
“Joe abandoned the beach when the terrifying shark appeared.”
The present participle “terrifying” describes the word “shark”.
Here’s another sentence.
“Fortunately, two guys showed up…
…one with a gleaming oxygen tank…
…the other with a loaded gun.”
Here, the present participle “gleaming” describes the oxygen tank…
…while the past participle “loaded” describes the word “gun”.
At least someone on this beach is a Steven Spielberg fan.
Whether they’re being used as nouns, adjectives, or parts of verbs, present and past participles
work hard…
…unlike Joe, who should’ve paid more attention to what was going on in the water than to
his beloved tan…