Participle: What It Is and How To Use It

Do you know what a participle is? This article will provide you with all of the information you need on participles, including its definition, usage, example sentences, and more!

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What is a participle?

According to Your Dictionary and Collins English Dictionary, a participle is a word formed from a verb. This is usually formed by adding a suffix. There are many different forms of participle including the present participle, past tense past participle, using participles to form adjectives and nouns, or as part of a compound verb. 

The past participle is usually formed by adding the suffixes ing or ed, but there are exceptions for irregular verbs. There are many different types of verb and verb forms, including strong verbs, weak verbs, the perfect aspect, progressive aspect, regular verbs, the past perfect tense, an auxiliary verb also known as auxiliaries, a gerund, and more.  A participial phrase is started with commas when it comes at the beginning of a sentence, interrupts a sentence as a nonessential element, or comes at the end of a sentence and is also separated from the word it modifies.

The word participle comes from the c14 Middle English, from the Middle French, Old French and Latin participium, from particeps partaker, a variant of participe, the Latin pars part and a form of capere. This is known as the word’s etymology.

Many different languages also contain words that mean participle. You may notice that some of these translations of participle look and sound similar to one another. These are called cognates, which are words and phrases in different languages that likely have the same root or language of origin, causing them to sound the same. The below list of translations of participle is provided by Word Sense

  •  Faroese: lýsingarháttur‎ (masc.)
  •  West Frisian: mulwurd‎
  •  Irish: rangabháil‎ (fem.)
  •  Novial: partisipe‎
  •  Swedish: particip‎ (neut.)
  •  Latin: participium‎ (neut.)
  •  Dutch: deelwoord‎ (neut.)
  •  Ancient Greek: μετοχή‎
  •  Italian: participio‎ (masc.)
  •  Galician: participio‎ (masc.)
  •  Turkish: ortaç‎, durum ortacı‎, sıfat-fiil‎, partisip‎
  •  Norman: participe‎ (masc.) (Jersey)
  •  Polish: imiesłów‎ (masc.)
  •  German: Mittelwort‎ (neut.), Partizip‎ (neut.), Partizipium‎ (neut.)
  •  Norwegian: partisipp‎ (neut.)
  •  French: participe‎ (masc.)
  •  Portuguese: particípio‎
  •  Mongolian: үйлт нэр‎
  •  Russian: прича́стие‎ (neut.)
  •  Arabic: اِسْم فَاعِل‎ (masc.), اِسْم مَفْعُول‎ (masc.)
  •  Czech: příčestí‎ (neut.)
  •  Latvian: divdabis‎ (masc.), particips‎ (masc.)
  •  Scottish Gaelic: rann-phàirt‎ (fem.)
  •  Serbo-Croatian: particip‎ (masc.)
  •  Welsh: rhangymeriad‎ (masc.)
  •  Danish: participium‎ (neut.), tillægsform‎ (common)
  •  Tagalog: pandiwari‎
  •  Estonian: kesksõna‎
  •  Spanish: participio‎ (masc.)
  •  Icelandic: lýsingarháttur‎ (masc.)
  •  Old High German: teilnemunga‎
  •  Japanese: 分詞‎ (bunshi)
  •  Basque: partizipio‎
  •  Finnish: partisiippi‎
  •  Greek: μετοχή‎
  •  Catalan: participi‎ (masc.)
  •  Asturian: participiu‎ (masc.)
  •  Mandarin: 分詞‎, 分词‎ (fēncí)
  •  Hungarian: melléknévi igenév‎

What are examples of participles?

Take a look at these examples of participles from Your Dictionary.

  •  The doctor said that you have broken your arm.
  •  It was raining a little yesterday.
  •  You are sharing your toys very nicely.
  •  Lying under oath is a crime.
  •  The dyed fabric should not be washed in hot water.
  •  The teacher acknowledged Sally’s studying with extra credit points.
  •  She is babysitting tonight.
  •  The dog has dug a big hole in the back yard.
  •  Delores changed the wet diaper for the crying baby.
  •  His batting is better than his fielding.
  •  The song was sung well by the rising opera star.
  •  He pulled together resourced to rescue the wrecked car from the shoreline.
  •  I am singing a song.
  •  We have been very worried about you.
  •  The broken record isn’t worth keeping.
  •  I have lived an interesting life.
  •  The new bed was brought into the house carefully by the deliverymen.
  •  He was finished with the project.
  •  He has lied to me too many times!
  •  They were talking too much and got a detention.
  •  The cookies were baked fresh this morning.
  •  Sewing is easy once you know how.
  •  She has burned dinner before.
  •  The going rate for freelancers is more than minimum wage.
  •  He hated sitting in the backseat of the car.
  •  My baked beans come from an old family recipe.
  •  The devoted friend blew out the burning candle.
  •  He took a gardening class at the community college.

What are other literary techniques and devices?

There are many different literary and grammatical techniques and devices that you might see when you are reading prose or poetry. It is important to recognize these terms because they are always used for some purpose. Knowing these devices can help readers understand the author’s deeper meaning and why they are using such a device. Take a look at the below list of grammatical devices from OED and see how many you know! Then try researching ones that are unfamiliar to you. 

  • finite
  •  singular
  •  prepositional phrase
  •  third-person
  •  collocation | collocate
  •  apodosis and protasis
  •  zero
  •  participle | past participle | present participle
  •  present tense
  •  mass noun
  •  definite article
  •  interrogative
  •  indicative
  •  possessive pronoun
  •  subjective
  •  non-referential
  •  combination
  •  prefix
  •  accusative
  •  adjective
  •  verbal noun
  •  cataphoric
  •  head
  •  imperative (imper.)
  •  neuter
  •  positive
  •  intransitive
  •  proper noun | proper name
  •  locative
  •  optative
  •  dative
  •  sentence adverb |sentence adverbial
  •  special use
  •  part of speech
  •  abstract
  •  construed (const., constr.)
  •  that-clause
  •  article
  •  collective noun
  •  attributive
  •  superlative
  •  element
  •  intensifier
  •  genitive
  •  personal pronoun
  •  direct object
  •  relative
  •  indirect passive
  •  present participle
  •  main clause
  •  agent noun
  •  predicate
  •  noun (n.)
  •  masculine
  •  case
  •  prepositional passive
  •  indirect speech
  •  absolute (absol.)
  •  tense
  •  suffix
  •  parenthetical | parenthetically
  •  subject
  •  indefinite
  •  modify | modifier
  •  determiner
  •  past tense
  •  demonstrative
  •  gender
  •  possessive
  •  plural
  •  antecedent
  •  simple
  •  conditional
  •  comparative
  •  second person
  •  anaphoric
  •  reflexive
  •  apposition
  •  complement
  •  pro-form
  •  phrasal verb
  •  transitive
  •  modal verb | modal auxiliary verb | modal auxiliary
  •  agree | agreement
  •  verb (v.)
  •  progressive
  •  postmodify | postmodifier
  •  phrase (phr.)
  •  nominal relative | nominal relative clause
  •  inflection | inflected | inflectional
  •  active
  •  stem
  •  person
  •  number
  •  premodify | premodifier
  •  filler
  •  parasynthetic
  •  base form
  •  causative
  •  compound | compounding
  •  non-finite
  •  morpheme
  •  anticipatory
  •  similative
  •  periphrasis | periphrastic
  •  clause
  •  ellipsis | elliptical
  •  to-infinitive
  •  declarative
  •  cognate object
  •  noun phrase
  •  protasis
  •  feminine
  •  pronoun (pron.)
  •  predicative
  •  preposition (prep.)
  •  complementary
  •  past participle
  •  dual
  •  subjunctive
  •  gerund
  •  perfect
  •  infinitive
  •  indirect object
  •  quasi-
  •  possessive adjective
  •  auxiliary verb | auxiliary
  •  adverbial | adverbially
  •  object | direct object | indirect object
  •  impersonal (impers.)
  •  concrete
  •  combining form (comb. form)
  •  passive
  •  interjection
  •  count noun
  •  participial adjective
  •  common noun
  •  conjunction (conj.)
  •  mood
  •  appositive
  •  vocative
  •  direct question
  •  direct speech
  •  subordinate clause
  •  main verb
  •  pleonasm | pleonastic
  •  passive infinitive
  •  nominative
  •  first person
  •  double object
  •  copular verb | copula
  •  bare infinitive
  •  prepositional object
  •  adverb (adv.)
  •  unmarked genitive
  •  objective
  •  instrumental
  •  construction
  •  indirect question

Overall, a participle is a word formed from a verb, and usually takes an ed or ing form.

Sources:

  1. Glossary of grammatical terms | OED 
  2. Participle Examples | Your Dictionary 
  3. participle: meaning, origin, translation | Word Sense 
  4. Participle Examples | Your Dictionary