Participles in Modern English

English verbs have two participles:

1. called variously the present, active, imperfect, or progressive participle, it is identical in form to the gerund; the term present participle is sometimes used to include the gerund. The term gerund-participle is also used.
2. called variously the past, passive, or perfect participle, it 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	Past Simple	Past Participle	Present Participle	Regular/ Irregular
talk	talked		talking	regular
hire	hired		hiring
do	did	done	doing	irregular
say	said		saying
eat	ate	eaten	eating
write	wrote	written	writing
beat	beat	beaten	beating
sing	sang	sung	singing

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

• forming the progressive aspect: Jim was sleeping.
• modifying a noun, with active sense: 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, but the gerund acts as a noun rather than a verb or a modifier. The word sleeping in Your job description does not include sleeping is a gerund and 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, with active sense: our fallen comrades
• modifying a noun, with passive sense: the attached files
• modifying a verb or sentence, with passive sense: Seen from this perspective, the problem presents no easy solution.

As noun-modifiers, participles usually precede the noun (like adjectives), but in many cases they can or must follow it:

• The visiting dignitaries devoured the baked apples.
• Please bring all the documents required.
• The difficulties encountered were nearly insurmountable.

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