Participles

Participles are formed from verbs and are used to create tenses and as adjectives.

There are three types of participles:
present participles
past participles
perfect participle 

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PRESENT PARTICIPLE

FORMING THE PRESENT PARTICIPLE

verb base +ing

be – being
draw – drawing
play – playing

EXCEPTIONS

ending silent -e, drop -e, add +ing
drive – driving
come – coming
write – writing

ending -ie, change -ie to y, add +ing
lie –  lying

ending –ic, add +k, then +ing
panic – panicking
frolic – frolicking

ending – l, double -l, then +ing
travel – travelling
grovel – grovelling

one syllable and last 3 letters are
consonant, stressed vowel, consonant:  – double the last letter then +ing
stop – stopping
begin – beginning

more than one syllable and last 3 letters are consonant, stressed vowel, stressed consonant: – double the last letter then +ing
occur – occurring
refer – referring
begin – beginning

USES OF THE PRESENT PARTICIPLE

as adjectives
The boiling water scaled her.

as adjectives, they may  from compound nouns
walking stick, wedding dress, racing horse.

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PAST PARTICIPLE

FORMING THE PAST PARTICIPLE

verb base +ed or +d

work – worked
talk – talked
verbs ending –e, add +d only
save – saved
move – moved

EXCEPTIONS

verbs with a short vowel:
double the last consonant, then add +ed
hop – hopped
stop – stopped

ending –y, change –y to –i, add +ed
study – studied
marry – married
try – tried

There are many irregulars, including:
be                  been
begin             begun
bring              brought
come             come
do                  done
draw              drawn
eat                 eaten
give               given
go                  gone
have              had
know             known
make             made
read               read
say                said
see                seen
sit                  sat
take               taken
for a fuller list see here

USES OF THE PAST PARTICIPLE

to form the perfect tenses
He had broken the lamp.

as adjectives
The broken lamp was in the bin.

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PERFECT PARTICIPLE

FORMING THE PERFECT PARTICIPLE

The perfect participle is made using the present participle of the verb ‘to have‘ and the past participle.

present participle having + past participle

USES OF THE PERFECT PARTICIPLE

The Perfect Participle is used to express an action that was completed in the past.

Having eaten, he was no longer hungry.
Having apologised, she left quickly.
Having seen the city, he was not impressed.

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