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In linguistics, a 'participle' is a non-finite verb form that can be used in compound tenses or voices, or as a modifier. Participles often share properties with other parts of speech, in particular adjectives and nouns.

Contents

Participles in Modern English

Participles in other languages

Latin

Old English

Lithuanian

Esperanto

Interlingua

French

Spanish

Finnish

Kinds of participles in various languages

Adverbial and adjectival

See also

References

Participles in Modern English

English verbs have two participles. One, called variously the ''present'', ''active'', ''imperfect'', or ''progressive participle'', is identical in form to the gerund, and indeed the term ''present participle'' is sometimes used to include the gerund. The term ''gerund-participle'' is also used. The other participle, called variously the ''past'', ''passive'', or ''perfect participle'', is usually identical to the verb's preterite (past tense) form, though in irregular verbs the two usually differ. Examples of participle formation include:

'Verb'	Preterite (past)	Past Participle	Present Participle	Regular/ Irregular
'talk'	talk''ed''		talk''ing''	regular
'hire'	hir''ed''		hir''ing''
'do'	did	done	do''ing''	irregular
'say'	said		say''ing''
'eat'	ate	eat''en''	eat''ing''
'write'	wrote	writt''en''	writ''ing''
'beat'	beat	beat''en''	beat''ing''

The present participle in English is active. It has the following uses:

★ forming the progressive aspect: ''Jim was 'sleeping'.''

★ modifying a noun: ''Let 'sleeping' dogs lie.''

★ modifying a verb or sentence: ''Broadly 'speaking', the project was successful.''
The present participle in English has the same form as the gerund, which however is a noun. Thus the word ''sleeping'' in ''Your job description does not include 'sleeping' past noon'' is not a present participle.
The past participle has both active and passive uses:

★ forming the perfect aspect: ''The chicken has 'eaten'.''

★ forming the passive voice: ''The chicken was 'eaten'.''

★ modifying a noun, active sense (certain intransitive verbs only): ''our 'fallen' comrades''

★ modifying a noun, passive sense: ''the 'attached' files''

★ modifying a verb or sentence, passive sense: '''Seen' from this perspective, there is no easy solution.''
As noun-modifiers, participles usually precede the noun (like adjectives), but in many cases they can or must follow it:

★ ''Please bring all the documents 'required'.''

★ ''The difficulties 'encountered' were nearly insurmountable.''

Participles in other languages

Latin

Compared with English, Latin has an additional future tense participle:

★ present active participle: ''educāns'' "teaching"

★ perfect passive participle: ''educatus'' "(having been) taught"

★ future active participle: ''educātūrus'' "about to teach"

★ future passive participle: ''educāndus'' "(necessary) to be taught"
Latin participles decline like adjectives.

Old English

★ In Old English, present participles ended in ''-ende'' or ''-iende'' depending on verb class. In Middle English, various forms were used in different regions: ''-ende'' (SW, SE, Midlands), ''-inde'' (SW, SE), ''-and'' (N), ''-inge'' (SE). This latter form eventually fell together with the suffix ''-ing'', used to form verbal nouns.

★ Past participles were marked with a ''ge-'' prefix, as is done today in Dutch and High German.

Lithuanian

Among Indo-European languages, Lithuanian language is unique for having thirteen different participial forms of the verb, that can be grouped into five when accounting for inflection by tense. Some of these are also inflected by gender and case. For example, the verb "eiti" ("to go, to walk") has the active participle form "einąs/einantis" ("going, walking", present tense), the passive participle form "einamas" ("being walked", present tense), the adverbial participle "einant" ("while it is being walked"), the semi-participle "eidamas" ("while [he is/was] going, walking") and the participle of necessity "eitinas" ("that which needs to be walked"). The first three of those five are inflected by tense, while the active, passive and the semi- participles are inflected by gender and the active, passive and necessity ones are inflected by case.

Esperanto

Esperanto has a full range of regular and symmetric passive and active participles in three tenses: past, present and future. The vowels ''i'', ''a'', and ''o'' show past, present, and future tenses respectively (a system also used in the finite verb tenses), followed by ''nt'' for active participles and ''t'' for passives, plus a grammatical ending. Thus we have for example (the ''-a'' ending is the adjective ending), from ''skribi'', "to write":

★ Past active participle: ''skribinta'' "having written"

★ Present active participle: ''skribanta'' "writing"

★ Future active participle: ''skribonta'' "about to write"

★ Past passive participle: ''skribita'' "written"

★ Present passive participle: ''skribata'' "being written"

★ Future passive participle: ''skribota'' "(about) to be written"
Esperanto has other suffixes which take over some of the more metaphorical uses of, for example, the Latin future passive participle, such as the meaning of worthiness or necessity.

Interlingua

In Interlingua, active participles end in ''-nte''. For example, ''dansa'' ("dances") gives ''dansante'' ("dancing"). Passive participles end in ''-te'': ''dansate'' ("danced"). In Interlingua, like in English, the perfect aspect is formed using a form of the verb ''haber'' ("to have") plus the passive participle; for example, ''haber dansate'' is "to have danced".

French

There are two basic participles:

★ 'Present participle': formed with the verb root + ''ant''. Eg, ''marchant'' "walking", ''étant'' "being"

★ 'Past participle': formation varies according to verb group. Eg: ''marché'' "walked", ''été'' "been", ''vendu'' "sold". May require agreement.
The French present participle, however, is not used to mark the continuous aspect as it is in English.
Compound participles are possible:

★ 'Present perfect participle': ''ayant appelé'' "having called", ''étant mort'' "having died"

★ 'Passive perfect participle': ''étant vendu'' "being sold, having been sold"

Spanish

In Spanish, the present participle (''el gerundio''; also called the "gerund" or "gerundive") of a verb is generally formed with one of the suffixes ''-ando'', ''-iendo''; the past participle (''el participio'') is generally formed with one of the suffixes ''-ado'', ''-ido''.
Traditionally, Spanish grammar has regarded the present participle not as an adjective, but as an adverb, and it does not change form to agree with any noun in gender or number. Nonetheless, it is used in much the same ways as the (adjective) present participle in English; for example, Spanish's equivalent of English's progressive aspect (e.g., ''to be doing'') is formed with a combination of the verb ''estar'' (''to be'' in a transient sense) and the present participle of the main verb (e.g., ''estar haciendo'').
By contrast, the past participle is considered an adjective, and agrees with a noun in gender and number, except when used to express the perfect aspect (e.g., ''to have done'', which in Spanish is ''haber hecho'').

Finnish

Verb: tehdä (to do)
Present active: teke''vä''

Present passive: teh''tävä''

Past active: teh''nyt''

Past passive: teh''ty''

Agent participle (passive): teke''mä'' (done by...)

Kinds of participles in various languages

Adverbial and adjectival

In some languages, a distinction between adverbial participle and adjectival participle can be made. Among these is Esperanto. See and in Russian grammar, or and in Hungarian grammar. Also many Eskimo languages make such a distinction, see for details e.g. the sophisticated participle system of Sireniki Eskimo.

See also

★ Grammar

★ Hanging participle

★ Verbal

★ Adjectival participle

★ Adverbial participle

★ Gerund

References

★ Participles from the ''American Heritage Book of English Usage'' (1996).