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In linguistics, a participle () (from
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
' a "sharing, partaking") is a nonfinite verb form that has some of the characteristics and functions of both verbs and adjectives. More narrowly, ''participle'' has been defined as "a word derived from a verb and used as an adjective, as in a ''laughing face''". “Participle” is a traditional grammatical term from Greek and Latin that is widely used for corresponding verb forms in European languages and analogous forms in
Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
and
Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
grammar. Cross-linguistically, participles may have a range of functions apart from adjectival modification. In European and Indian languages, the past participle is used to form the
passive voice A passive voice construction is a grammatical voice construction that is found in many languages. In a clause with passive voice, the grammatical subject expresses the ''theme'' or ''patient'' of the main verb – that is, the person or thing t ...
. In English, participles are also associated with
periphrastic In linguistics, periphrasis () is the use of one or more function words to express meaning that otherwise may be expressed by attaching an affix or clitic to a word. The resulting phrase includes two or more collocated words instead of one infl ...
verb forms (
continuous Continuity or continuous may refer to: Mathematics * Continuity (mathematics), the opposing concept to discreteness; common examples include ** Continuous probability distribution or random variable in probability and statistics ** Continuous ...
and perfect) and are widely used in
adverbial clause An adverbial clause is a dependent clause that functions as an adverb. That is, the entire clause modifies a separate element within a sentence. As with all clauses, it contains a subject and predicate, though the subject as well as the (predicat ...
s. In non-Indo-European languages, ‘participle’ has been applied to forms that are alternatively regarded as
converb In theoretical linguistics, a converb (abbreviated ) is a nonfinite verb form that serves to express adverbial subordination: notions like 'when', 'because', 'after' and 'while'. Other terms that have been used to refer to converbs include ''adverb ...
s (see Sireniki Eskimo below),
gerund In linguistics, a gerund ( abbreviated ) is any of various nonfinite verb forms in various languages; most often, but not exclusively, one that functions as a noun. In English, it has the properties of both verb and noun, such as being modifiable ...
s,
gerundive In Latin grammar, a gerundive () is a verb form that functions as a verbal adjective. In Classical Latin, the gerundive is distinct in form and function from the gerund and the present active participle. In Late Latin, the differences were large ...
s, transgressives, and nominalised verbs in complement clauses. As a result, ‘participles’ have come to be associated with a broad variety of syntactic constructions.


Etymology

The word ''participle'' comes from classical Latin , from 'sharing, participation', because it shares certain properties of verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. The Latin grammatical term is a
calque In linguistics, a calque () or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal word-for-word or root-for-root translation. When used as a verb, "to calque" means to borrow a word or phrase from another language wh ...
of the Greek grammatical term 'participation, participle'. In particular, Greek and Latin participles agree with the nouns that they modify in
gender Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most cultures u ...
,
number A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The original examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers c ...
and case, but are also conjugated for tense and
voice The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of human sound production in ...
and can take prepositional and adverbial modifiers. The linguistic term, ''past participle'', was coined circa 1798 based on its participial form, whose morphology equates to the regular form of
preterite The preterite or preterit (; abbreviated or ) is a grammatical tense or verb form serving to denote events that took place or were completed in the past; in some languages, such as Spanish, French, and English, it is equivalent to the simple pas ...
verbs. The term, ''present participle'', was first used circa 1864 to facilitate grammatical distinctions. Despite the taxonomical use of "past" and "present" as associated with the aforementioned participles, their respective semantic use can entail any tense, regardless of aspect, depending on how they are structurally combined.


Forms

Some languages have extensive participial systems but English has only two participial forms, most commonly termed: #past participle, which is regularly formed with an ''-ed''
suffix In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns, adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can carry ...
(e.g. ''looked'', ''ended'', ''tutored'') but has numerous irregular forms (e.g. ''broken'', ''made'', ''understood''); and #present participle, which is formed with an ''
-ing ''-ing'' is a suffix used to make one of the inflected forms of English verbs. This verb form is used as a present participle, as a gerund, and sometimes as an independent noun or adjective. The suffix is also found in certain words like ''mor ...
'' suffix (e.g. ''breaking'', ''making'', ''understanding''). Some grammars further distinguish ''passive participles'' as often associated with
passive voice A passive voice construction is a grammatical voice construction that is found in many languages. In a clause with passive voice, the grammatical subject expresses the ''theme'' or ''patient'' of the main verb – that is, the person or thing t ...
versus ''active participles'' as often associated with e.g. the
present progressive tense The present continuous, also called the present progressive or present imperfect, is a verb form used in modern English that combines the present tense with the continuous aspect. It is formed by the present tense form of be and the present part ...
, but such linguistic distinctions are neither recognized nor employed on a universal basis.


Types of participle

Participles can be used adjectivally (i.e. without characteristics of canonical verbs) as ''
attributive adjective In linguistics, an adjective (abbreviated ) is a word that generally modifies a noun or noun phrase or describes its referent. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun. Traditionally, adjectives were considered one of the mai ...
s''. They then take neither
object Object may refer to: General meanings * Object (philosophy), a thing, being, or concept ** Object (abstract), an object which does not exist at any particular time or place ** Physical object, an identifiable collection of matter * Goal, an ...
complements nor modifiers that are typical of canonical verbs, but they are capable of being modified by adverbs such as ''very'' or ''slightly''. The difference is illustrated by the following examples: *The subject interesting him at the moment is Greek history. *Greek history is a very interesting subject. In the first sentence ''interesting'' functions transitively as a nonfinite verb that takes the object ''him'', thereby forming the phrase ''interesting him'', which constitutes an adjectival phrase modifying ''subject''. In the second sentence ''interesting'' functions non-transitively; it instead acts as a prepositive adjective that can be modified by typical adverbs such as ''very'' or ''quite'' (or a prefix such as ''un-''). Similar examples are "''interested'' people", "a ''frightened'' rabbit", "''fallen'' leaves", "''meat-eating'' animals". Participles are often used to form certain
grammatical tense In grammar, tense is a grammatical category, category that expresses time reference. Tenses are usually manifested by the use of specific forms of verbs, particularly in their grammatical conjugation, conjugation patterns. The main tenses foun ...
s or
grammatical aspect In linguistics, aspect is a grammatical category that expresses how an action, event, or state, as denoted by a verb, extends over time. Perfective aspect is used in referring to an event conceived as bounded and unitary, without reference to ...
s. The two types of participle in Modern English are termed present participle and past participle, respectively (often also referred to as the ''-ing form'' and ''-ed/-en form''). The traditional terms are misleading because the participles do not necessarily correspond to tense: the present participle is often associated with the progressive (continuous) aspect, while the past participle is linked with the perfect aspect or passive voice. See the examples below: *They were just standing there. *By the time you get home I will have cleaned the house. The first sentence is in the past tense (''were''), but a present participle expresses the progressive aspect (''be standing''). The second sentence is in the future tense (''will''), but a past participle is used for the perfect aspect (''have cleaned''). Participles may also be identified with a particular
voice The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of human sound production in ...
:
active Active may refer to: Music * ''Active'' (album), a 1992 album by Casiopea * Active Records, a record label Ships * ''Active'' (ship), several commercial ships by that name * HMS ''Active'', the name of various ships of the British Royal ...
or
passive Passive may refer to: * Passive voice, a grammatical voice common in many languages, see also Pseudopassive * Passive language, a language from which an interpreter works * Passivity (behavior), the condition of submitting to the influence of on ...
. Some languages (such as Latin and Russian) have distinct participles for active and passive uses. In English, the present participle is essentially an active participle, while the past participle has both active and passive uses. The following examples illustrate this: * I saw John eating his dinner. (Here ''eating'' is an active present participle). * The bus has gone. (Here ''gone'' is an active past participle). * The window was broken with a rock. (Here ''broken'' is a passive past participle) Some languages differentiate adjectival participles and adverbial participles. An adverbial participle (or a participial phrase/clause based on such a participle) plays the role of an
adverbial In English grammar, an adverbial (abbreviated ) is a word (an adverb) or a group of words (an adverbial clause or adverbial phrase) that modifies or more closely defines the sentence or the verb. (The word ''adverbial'' itself is also used as a ...
(
adverb An adverb is a word or an expression that generally modifies a verb, adjective, another adverb, determiner, clause, preposition, or sentence. Adverbs typically express manner, place, time, frequency, degree, level of certainty, etc., answering ...
phrase) in the sentence in which it appears, whereas an adjectival participle (or a participial phrase/clause based on one) plays the role of an
adjective phrase An adjective phrase (or adjectival phrase) is a phrase whose head is an adjective. Almost any grammar or syntax textbook or dictionary of linguistics terminology defines the adjective phrase in a similar way, e.g. Kesner Bland (1996:499), Crystal (1 ...
. Such languages include
Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
The Russian Participles
Part of “An Interactive On-line Reference Grammar — Russian” by Dr. Robert Beard.
and other
Slavic languages The Slavic languages, also known as the Slavonic languages, are Indo-European languages spoken primarily by the Slavic peoples and their descendants. They are thought to descend from a proto-language called Proto-Slavic, spoken during the Ear ...
, Hungarian, and many
Eskimo languages The Eskaleut (), Eskimo–Aleut or Inuit–Yupik–Unangan languages are a language family native to the northern portions of the North American continent and a small part of northeastern Asia. Languages in the family are indigenous to parts of w ...
, such as
Sireniki Sireniki (russian: Сиреники; Yupik language, Yupik: Сиӷинык, literally ''Mountain of Horns''; Chukchi language, Chukchi: , ''Vutèèn''; Sirenik Eskimo language, Sirenik: ''Sigheneg'') is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, ...
,Menovshchikov, G.A.: Language of Sireniki Eskimos. Phonetics, morphology, texts and vocabulary.
Academy of Sciences of the USSR The Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union was the highest scientific institution of the Soviet Union from 1925 to 1991, uniting the country's leading scientists, subordinated directly to the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (until 1946 ...
, Moscow • Leningrad, 1964. Original data: Г.А. Меновщиков: Язык сиреникских эскимосов. Фонетика, очерк морфологии, тексты и словарь. Академия Наук СССР. Институт языкознания. Москва • Ленинград, 1964
which has a sophisticated participle system. Details can be found in the sections below or in the articles on the grammars of specific languages. Grammatical descriptions vary in the way these are treated. Some descriptive grammars treat such adverbial and adjectival participles as distinct
lexical categories In grammar, a part of speech or part-of-speech (abbreviated as POS or PoS, also known as word class or grammatical category) is a category of words (or, more generally, of lexical items) that have similar grammatical properties. Words that are ass ...
, while others include them both in a single category of participles. Adverbial participles in certain languages may be called
converb In theoretical linguistics, a converb (abbreviated ) is a nonfinite verb form that serves to express adverbial subordination: notions like 'when', 'because', 'after' and 'while'. Other terms that have been used to refer to converbs include ''adverb ...
s,
gerund In linguistics, a gerund ( abbreviated ) is any of various nonfinite verb forms in various languages; most often, but not exclusively, one that functions as a noun. In English, it has the properties of both verb and noun, such as being modifiable ...
s, or
gerundive In Latin grammar, a gerundive () is a verb form that functions as a verbal adjective. In Classical Latin, the gerundive is distinct in form and function from the gerund and the present active participle. In Late Latin, the differences were large ...
s (though this is not consistent with the meanings of the terms ''gerund'' or ''gerundive'' as normally applied to English or Latin), or transgressives.


Indo-European languages


Germanic languages


Early English

In
Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...
, past participles of
Germanic strong verb In the Germanic languages, a strong verb is a verb that marks its past tense by means of changes to the stem vowel (ablaut). The majority of the remaining verbs form the past tense by means of a dental suffix (e.g. ''-ed'' in English), and are kn ...
s were marked with a ''ge-'' prefix, as are most strong and weak past participles in Dutch and German today, and often by a vowel change in the stem. Those of weak verbs were marked by the ending ''-d'', with or without an
epenthetic In phonology, epenthesis (; Greek language, Greek ) means the addition of one or more sounds to a word, especially in the beginning syllable (''prothesis (linguistics), prothesis'') or in the ending syllable (''paragoge'') or in-between two syll ...
vowel before it. Modern English past participles derive from these forms (although the ''ge-'' prefix, which became ''y-'' in Middle English, has now been lost — except in some rare dialects such as the
Dorset dialect The Dorset dialect is the traditional dialect spoken in Dorset, a county in the West Country of England. Stemming from Old West Saxon, it is preserved in the isolated Blackmore Vale, despite it somewhat falling into disuse throughout the earlier ...
, where it takes the form of ''a-''). Old English present participles were marked with an ending in ''-ende'' (or ''-iende'' for verbs whose infinitives ended in ''-ian'').


Middle English

In
Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English p ...
, the form of the present participle varied across regions: ''-ende'' (southwest, southeast,
Midlands The Midlands (also referred to as Central England) are a part of England that broadly correspond to the Kingdom of Mercia of the Early Middle Ages, bordered by Wales, Northern England and Southern England. The Midlands were important in the Ind ...
), ''-inde'' (southwest, southeast), ''-and'' (north), ''-inge'' (southeast). The last is the one that became standard, falling together with the suffix ''-ing'' used to form
verbal noun A verbal noun or gerundial noun is a verb form that functions as a noun. An example of a verbal noun in English grammar, English is 'sacking' as in the sentence "The sacking of the city was an epochal event" (''sacking'' is a noun formed from the ...
s. See ''-ing'' (etymology).


Modern English

Modern English includes two traditional terms for its participles: * The ''present participle'', also sometimes called the ''
active Active may refer to: Music * ''Active'' (album), a 1992 album by Casiopea * Active Records, a record label Ships * ''Active'' (ship), several commercial ships by that name * HMS ''Active'', the name of various ships of the British Royal ...
'', ''
imperfect The imperfect (abbreviated ) is a verb form that combines past tense (reference to a past time) and imperfective aspect (reference to a continuing or repeated event or state). It can have meanings similar to the English "was walking" or "used to w ...
'', or '' progressive'' participle, takes the ending ''-ing'', for example ''doing'', ''seeing'', ''working'', ''running'', ''breaking'', ''understanding''. It is identical in form to the
verbal noun A verbal noun or gerundial noun is a verb form that functions as a noun. An example of a verbal noun in English grammar, English is 'sacking' as in the sentence "The sacking of the city was an epochal event" (''sacking'' is a noun formed from the ...
and
gerund In linguistics, a gerund ( abbreviated ) is any of various nonfinite verb forms in various languages; most often, but not exclusively, one that functions as a noun. In English, it has the properties of both verb and noun, such as being modifiable ...
(see below). The term ''present participle'' is sometimes used to include the gerund; the term "gerund–participle" is also used to indicate the verb form. * The ''past participle'', also sometimes called the ''
passive Passive may refer to: * Passive voice, a grammatical voice common in many languages, see also Pseudopassive * Passive language, a language from which an interpreter works * Passivity (behavior), the condition of submitting to the influence of on ...
'' or '' perfect'' participle, is identical to the
past tense The past tense is a grammatical tense whose function is to place an action or situation in the past. Examples of verbs in the past tense include the English verbs ''sang'', ''went'' and ''washed''. Most languages have a past tense, with some hav ...
form (ending in ''-ed'') in the case of regular verbs, for example "loaded", "boiled", "mounted", but takes various forms in the case of
irregular verbs A regular verb is any verb whose conjugation follows the typical pattern, or one of the typical patterns, of the language to which it belongs. A verb whose conjugation follows a different pattern is called an irregular verb. This is one instance ...
, such as ''done'', ''sung'', ''written'', ''broken'', ''understood'', ''put'', ''gone'', etc. In addition, various compound participles can be formed, such as ''having done'', ''being done'', ''having been doing'', ''having been done''. Details of participle formation can be found under
English verbs Verbs constitute one of the main parts of speech (word classes) in the English language. Like other types of words in the language, English verbs are not heavily inflected. Most combinations of tense, aspect, mood and voice are expressed perip ...
and
List of English irregular verbs This is a list of irregular verbs in the English language. Past tense irregular verbs For each verb listed, the citation form (the bare infinitive) is given first, with a link to the relevant Wiktionary entry. This is followed by the simple past ...
. Participles, or participial phrases (clauses) formed from them, are used as follows: 1. As an adjective used in an attributive sense: * A broken window (i.e., one that has been broken) * An interesting book (i.e., one that interests) * An exciting adventure (i.e., one that excites) * The attached files (i.e., those that are attached) * A fallen tree (i.e., one that has fallen) * Our fallen comrades (i.e., those who have fallen) Additionally, participles that express an adjectivally attributive meaning can be affixed to form adverbs, such as ''interestingly'' and ''excitedly''. 2. In postpositive phrases. These are often regarded as functioning as a 
reduced relative clause A reduced relative clause is a relative clause that is ''not'' marked by an explicit relative pronoun or complementizer such as ''who'', ''which'' or ''that''. An example is the clause ''I saw'' in the English sentence "This is the man ''I saw''. ...
: * A window broken by the wind (A window that was broken by the wind). * A woman wearing a red hat (A woman who was wearing a red hat). * The man standing over there is my uncle (The man who is standing over there is my uncle). * We are a people clamoring for freedom (We are a people who are clamoring for freedom). 3. In an 
adverbial phrase In linguistics, an ''adverbial phrase'' ("AdvP") is a multi-word expression operating adverbially: its syntactic function is to modify other expressions, including verbs, adjectives, adverbs, adverbials, and sentences. Adverbial phrases can be divi ...
. In the following, the  subject is understood to be the same as that of the main clause: * Reviewing her bank statement, Ann started to cry (While she reviewed her bank statement, Ann started to cry). * Having reviewed the bank statement, Ann started to cry (After she reviewed her bank statement, Ann started to cry). * He shot the man, killing him (He shot the man and killed him). * Maintained properly, wooden buildings can last for centuries (If/when they are maintained properly, wooden buildings can last for centuries). With a different subject, placed before the participle: * He and I having reconciled our differences, the project then proceeded smoothly (Because/after he and I had reconciled our differences, the project proceeded smoothly). (This is known as the nominative absolute construction.) More generally as a clause or sentence modifier:  * Broadly speaking, the project was successful. (See also 
dangling participle A dangling modifier (also known as a dangling participle or illogical participle) is a type of ambiguous grammatical construct whereby a grammatical modifier could be misinterpreted as being associated with a word other than the one intended. A dan ...
.) 4. Participles are used to form
periphrastic In linguistics, periphrasis () is the use of one or more function words to express meaning that otherwise may be expressed by attaching an affix or clitic to a word. The resulting phrase includes two or more collocated words instead of one infl ...
 verb tenses: The present participle forms the  progressive aspect with the auxiliary verb ''be'':  * Jim was sleeping. The past participle forms the  perfect aspect with the auxiliary verb ''have'':  * The chicken has eaten. 5. The past participle is used to form
passive voice A passive voice construction is a grammatical voice construction that is found in many languages. In a clause with passive voice, the grammatical subject expresses the ''theme'' or ''patient'' of the main verb – that is, the person or thing t ...
: * The chicken was eaten. Such passive participles can appear in an adjectival phrase:  *The chicken eaten by the children was contaminated.  Adverbially:  *Eaten in this manner, the chicken presents no problem. And in a nominative absolute construction, with a subject:  *The chicken eaten, we returned home. Note that a past participle that complements a
stative verb According to some linguistics theories, a stative verb is a verb that describes a state of being, in contrast to a dynamic verb, which describes an action. The difference can be categorized by saying that stative verbs describe situations that are ...
(e.g., "The files that ''are attached'' or "Our comrades who ''have fallen''") becomes a passive participle within a
passive voice A passive voice construction is a grammatical voice construction that is found in many languages. In a clause with passive voice, the grammatical subject expresses the ''theme'' or ''patient'' of the main verb – that is, the person or thing t ...
construct. 6. As a gerund. The
gerund In linguistics, a gerund ( abbreviated ) is any of various nonfinite verb forms in various languages; most often, but not exclusively, one that functions as a noun. In English, it has the properties of both verb and noun, such as being modifiable ...
is traditionally regarded as distinct from the present participle. A gerund can function transitively (e.g., "I like ''eating ice cream''") or intransitively (e.g., "I like ''swimming''"). In both instances, a gerund functions nominatively rather than adjectivally or adverbially—whether as an object (e.g., "I like ''sleeping''") or as a subject (e.g., "''Sleeping'' is not allowed"). Although ''gerunds'' and ''present participles'' are morphologically identical, their grammatical functions differ substantially. Sometimes their morphological similarity can create contextual ambiguity, as
Noam Chomsky Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American public intellectual: a linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is ...
pointed out in his well-known example: *Flying planes can be dangerous. When the meaning is "The practice of flying a plane is dangerous," ''flying'' functions as a gerund; when the danger concerns "Planes that fly" or "Planes when they are flying" (i.e., in contrast to ''grounded planes''), ''flying'' is being used adjectivally as a participle. For more on the distinctions between these uses of the ''-ing'' verb form, see ''-ing'': uses. For more details on uses of participles and other parts of verbs in English, see
Uses of English verb forms This article describes the uses of various verb forms in modern standard English language. This includes: * Finite verb forms such as ''go'', ''goes'' and ''went'' * Nonfinite forms such as ''(to) go'', ''going'' and ''gone'' * Combinations of s ...
, including the sections on the
present participle In linguistics, a participle () (from Latin ' a "sharing, partaking") is a nonfinite verb form that has some of the characteristics and functions of both verbs and adjectives. More narrowly, ''participle'' has been defined as "a word derived from ...
and
past participle In linguistics, a participle () (from Latin ' a "sharing, partaking") is a nonfinite verb form that has some of the characteristics and functions of both verbs and adjectives. More narrowly, ''participle'' has been defined as "a word derived from ...
. The following table summarises some of the uses of participles in English:


Scandinavian languages

In all of the
Scandinavian languages The North Germanic languages make up one of the three branches of the Germanic languages—a sub-family of the Indo-European languages—along with the West Germanic languages and the extinct East Germanic languages. The language group is also r ...
the past participle has to agree with the noun to some degree. All of the Scandinavian languages have mandatory agreement with the noun in number.
Nynorsk Nynorsk () () is one of the two written standards of the Norwegian language, the other being Bokmål. From 12 May 1885, it became the state-sanctioned version of Ivar Aasen's standard Norwegian language ( no, Landsmål) parallel to the Dano-Nor ...
and
Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
have mandatory agreement in both number and gender. Icelandic and Faroese have agreement in number, gender and case. The verb form used for the perfect (or "
supine In grammar, a supine is a form of verbal noun used in some languages. The term is most often used for Latin, where it is one of the four principal parts of a verb. The word refers to a position of lying on one's back (as opposed to 'prone', lyi ...
") aspect is generally identical to the nominative neuter singular form of the past participle for all verbs. For the present participle there is no agreement. Examples in
Nynorsk Nynorsk () () is one of the two written standards of the Norwegian language, the other being Bokmål. From 12 May 1885, it became the state-sanctioned version of Ivar Aasen's standard Norwegian language ( no, Landsmål) parallel to the Dano-Nor ...
: * Sjølvkøyrande bilar kan vere farlege. (English: self-driving ''cars can be dangerous)'' * Kyllingen vart eten (English: The chicken was eaten) * Dyret vart ete (English: The deer was eaten) The participles are marked in bold. The first example involves a present participle and the two latter examples involves a past participle. All present participles end with an -ande suffix. In Norwegian, the present participle may be used to form adjectives or adverbs denoting the possibility or convenience of performing the action prescribed by the verb. For example: * Var maten etande? (English: Was the food edible?) (or rather: Was the food any good?) * Utan servo vert bilen fort ukøyrande. (English: Without power steering, the car soon becomes impossible to drive.) (Lit: un-drivable) This construction is allowed in Nynorsk, but not in
Bokmål Bokmål () (, ; ) is an official written standard for the Norwegian language, alongside Nynorsk. Bokmål is the preferred written standard of Norwegian for 85% to 90% of the population in Norway. Unlike, for instance, the Italian language, there ...
, where suffixes like ''-elig'' or ''-bar'' are used instead.


Latin and Romance languages


Latin

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
grammar was studied in Europe for hundreds of years, especially the handbook written by the 4th-century teacher
Aelius Donatus Aelius Donatus (; fl. mid-fourth century AD) was a Roman grammarian and teacher of rhetoric. Works He was the author of a number of professional works, of which several are extant: *Ars maior – A commentary on Latin grammar. * Ars minor – ...
, and it is from Latin that the name and concept of the participle derives. According to Donatus there are four participles in Latin, as follows: * present participle: present stem + ''-ns'' (gen. ''-ntis''); e.g. ''legēns'' (plural ''legentēs'') "(while) reading" * perfect participle:
supine In grammar, a supine is a form of verbal noun used in some languages. The term is most often used for Latin, where it is one of the four principal parts of a verb. The word refers to a position of lying on one's back (as opposed to 'prone', lyi ...
stem + ''-us'', ''-a'', ''-um''; e.g. ''lēctus'' "read (by someone)" * future participle: supine stem + ''-ūrus'', ''-ūra'', ''-ūrum''; e.g. ''lēctūrus'' "going to read", "due to read" * gerundive (sometimes considered the future passive participle): e.g. ''legendus'' "due to be read", "necessary to be read" However, many modern Latin grammars treat the gerundive as a separate part of speech. The perfect participle is usually
passive Passive may refer to: * Passive voice, a grammatical voice common in many languages, see also Pseudopassive * Passive language, a language from which an interpreter works * Passivity (behavior), the condition of submitting to the influence of on ...
in meaning, and thus mainly formed from transitive verbs, for example ''frāctus'' "broken", ''missus'' "sent (by someone)". However, certain verbs (called
deponent verb In linguistics, a deponent verb is a verb that is active in meaning but takes its form from a different voice, most commonly the middle or passive. A deponent verb has no active forms. Languages with deponent verbs ''This list may not be exhau ...
s) have a perfect participle in an
active Active may refer to: Music * ''Active'' (album), a 1992 album by Casiopea * Active Records, a record label Ships * ''Active'' (ship), several commercial ships by that name * HMS ''Active'', the name of various ships of the British Royal ...
sense, e.g. ''profectus'' "having set out", ''hortātus'' "having encouraged", etc. The present and future participles are always active, the gerundive usually passive. Because a participle is an adjective as well as a verb, just like any other Latin adjective its ending changes according to the noun it describes. So when the noun is masculine, the participle must be masculine; when the noun is in the
accusative The accusative case (abbreviated ) of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb. In the English language, the only words that occur in the accusative case are pronouns: 'me,' 'him,' 'her,' 'us,' and ‘the ...
(object) case, the participle is also in the accusative case; when the noun has plural endings, the participle also has plural endings. Thus a simple participle such as ''frāctus'' "broken" can change to ''frācta'', ''frāctum'', ''frāctī'', ''frāctō'' and so on, according to its gender, number, and case. A participle can have a descriptive meaning like an adjective, or a more dynamic meaning like a verb. Thus in the following sentence the participle ''strīctō'' "drawn" is better taken as describing an action ("he drew his sword" or "after drawing his sword") rather than as describing the sword ("with a drawn sword"): *''Strīctō gladiō ad dormientem Lucrētiam vēnit.''
"With drawn sword he came to the sleeping Lucretia." The dynamic, verbal meaning is more common, and Latin often uses a participle where English might use a simple verb. The present participle often describes the circumstances attending the main verb. A typical example is: *''Balbus ad mē vēnit currēns''.
"Balbus came to me running." Both the future and the perfect participle (but not the present participle) can be used with various tenses of the verb ''esse'' "to be" to make a compound tense such as the future-in-the-past or the perfect passive: *''Eō diē Rōmam ventūrus erat.''
"On that day he was going to return to Rome." *''Occīsus est ā Thēbānīs.''
"He was killed by the Thebans." The perfect and future participles can also be used, with or without the verb ''esse'' "to be", in indirect speech clauses: *''(Dīxit eōs) locum facile inventūrōs (esse).''
"He said that they were easily going to find the place / He said that they would find the place easily." For uses of the gerundive, see Latin syntax#The gerundive.


French

There are two basic participles: *Present active participle: formed by dropping the ''-ons'' of the ''nous'' form of the present tense of a verb (except with ''être'' and ''avoir'') and then adding ''ant'': ''marchant'' "walking", ''étant'' "being", ''ayant'' "having". *Past participle: formation varies according to verb group: ''vendu'' "sold", ''mis'' "placed", ''marché'' "walked", ''été'' "been", and ''fait'' "done". The sense of the past participle is passive as an adjective and in most verbal constructions with "avoir", but active in verbal constructions with "être", in reflexive constructions, and with some intransitive verbs. Compound participles are possible: *Present perfect participle: ''ayant appelé'' "having called", ''étant mort'' "being dead" *Passive perfect participle: ''étant vendu'' "being sold, having been sold" Usage: *Present participles are used as qualifiers as in "un insecte volant" (a flying insect) and in some other contexts. They are never used to form tenses. The present participle is used in subordinate clauses, usually with ''en'': "Je marche, en parlant". *Past participles are used as qualifiers for nouns: "la table cassée" (the broken table); to form compound tenses such as the perfect "Vous avez dit" (you have said) and to form the passive voice: "il a été tué" (he/it has been killed).


Spanish

In Spanish, the so-called present or active participle (''participio activo'' or ''participio de presente'') of a verb is traditionally formed with one of the suffixes ''-ante, -ente'' or ''-iente'', but modern grammar does not consider it a true participle, as such forms usually have the meaning of simple adjectives or nouns: e.g. ''amante'' "loving" or "lover", ''viviente'' "living" or "live". Another participial form is known as the ''gerundio'', which ends in an (unchanging) suffix ''-ando'' or ''-iendo''. The gerundio is used in combination with the verb ''estar'' ("to be") to make continuous tenses: for example, ''estar haciendo'' means "to be doing" (''haciendo'' being the ''gerundio'' of ''hacer'', "to do"), and there are related constructions such as ''seguir haciendo'' meaning "to keep doing" (''seguir'' being "to continue"). Another use is in phrases such as ''vino corriendo'' ("he/she came running") and ''lo vi corriendo'' ("I saw him running"). The past participle (''participio pasado'' or ''participio pasivo'') is regularly formed with one of the suffixes ''-ado'' or ''-ido (-ado'' for verbs ending in "-ar" and ''-ido'' for verbs ending in "-er" or "-ir"; but some verbs have an irregular form ending in ''-to'' (e.g. ''escrito, visto, puesto''), or ''-cho'' (e.g. ''dicho, hecho''). The past participle is used generally as an adjective referring to a finished action, in which case its ending changes according to gender and number. At other times is used to form compound tenses: the present perfect, past perfect (sometimes referred to as the ''pluscuamperfecto''), and the future perfect, in which case it is indeclinable. Some examples: As an adjective (note how "escritas" agrees in gender with the noun, "las cartas"): *''las cartas escritas'' "the written letters" To form compound tenses: *''Ha escrito una carta.'' "She (he, it) has written a letter." *''Había escrito una carta.'' "She (he, it) had written a letter." *''Habrá escrito una carta.'' "She (he, it) will have written a letter."


Hellenic languages


Ancient Greek

The
Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...
participle shares in the properties of adjectives and verbs. Like an adjective, it changes form for
gender Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most cultures u ...
, case, and
number A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The original examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers c ...
. Like a verb, it has tense and
voice The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of human sound production in ...
, is modified by
adverb An adverb is a word or an expression that generally modifies a verb, adjective, another adverb, determiner, clause, preposition, or sentence. Adverbs typically express manner, place, time, frequency, degree, level of certainty, etc., answering ...
s, and can take
verb argument In linguistics, an argument is an expression that helps complete the meaning of a predicate, the latter referring in this context to a main verb and its auxiliaries. In this regard, the '' complement'' is a closely related concept. Most predicates ...
s, including an
object Object may refer to: General meanings * Object (philosophy), a thing, being, or concept ** Object (abstract), an object which does not exist at any particular time or place ** Physical object, an identifiable collection of matter * Goal, an ...
. Participles are quite numerous in Ancient Greek: a non-defective verb has as many as ten participles. There is a form of the participle for every combination of aspect (present, aorist, perfect, future) and voice (active, middle, passive). All participles are based on their finite forms. Here are the masculine nominative singular forms for a thematic and an athematic verb: Like an adjective, it can modify a noun, and can be used to embed one thought into another. In the example, the participial phrase ''tòn eû stratēgḗsonta'', literally "the one going to be a good general," is used to embed the idea ''eû stratēgḗsei'' "he will be a good general" within the main verb. The participle is very widely used in Ancient Greek, especially in prose.


Indo-Aryan languages


Hindi & Urdu

There are two types of participles in
Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...
&
Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''
Hindustani), aspectual participles which mark the aspect and non-aspectual participles which do not mark verbal aspect. The table below mentions the different participles present in Hindustani, ''ɸ'' denotes the verb root. The aspectual participles can take a few other copulas after them besides the verb ''honā'' "to be". Those copular verbs are ''rêhna'' ''"to stay", ānā "to come", jānā "to go".''


Sanskrit

Much like
Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...
,
Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
has a wide array of participles.


Celtic languages


Cornish

In Cornish, an equivalent present participle construction to English is formed by using ''ow'' (''owth'' before vowels) with a verbal noun, e.g. ''Yma an den ow hwerthin'' ("The man is laughing"), and ''den ow hwerthin'' ("a laughing man"). Like Breton but unlike Welsh, Cornish also has verbal adjectives which are used similarly to English past participles, e.g. ''dehen molys'' ("clotted cream"), from the verbal noun ''mola'' "to clot".


Welsh

In Welsh, the effect of a participle in the active voice is constructed by ''yn'' followed by the verb-noun (for the present participle) and ''wedi'' followed by the verb-noun (for the past participle). There is no
mutation In biology, a mutation is an alteration in the nucleic acid sequence of the genome of an organism, virus, or extrachromosomal DNA. Viral genomes contain either DNA or RNA. Mutations result from errors during DNA or viral replication, mi ...
in either case. In the passive voice, participles are usually replaced by a compound phrase such as ''wedi cael ei/eu'' ("having got his/her/their ...ing") in contemporary Welsh and by the impersonal form in classical Welsh.


Slavic languages


Polish

The Polish word for participle is ''imiesłów'' ( pl.: ''imiesłowy''). There are four types of ''imiesłowy'' in two classes: Adjectival participle (''imiesłów przymiotnikowy''): * active adjectival participle (''imiesłów przymiotnikowy czynny''): ''robiący'' – "doing", "one who does" * passive adjectival participle (''imiesłów przymiotnikowy bierny''): ''robiony'' – "being done" (can only be formed off
transitive verb A transitive verb is a verb that accepts one or more objects, for example, 'cleaned' in ''Donald cleaned the window''. This contrasts with intransitive verbs, which do not have objects, for example, 'panicked' in ''Donald panicked''. Transitiv ...
s) Adverbial participle (''imiesłów przysłówkowy''): * present adverbial participle (''imiesłów przysłówkowy współczesny''): robiąc – "doing", "while doing" * perfect adverbial participle (''imiesłów przysłówkowy uprzedni''): ''zrobiwszy'' – "having done" (formed in virtually all cases off verbs in their perfective forms, here denoted by the
prefix A prefix is an affix which is placed before the Word stem, stem of a word. Adding it to the beginning of one word changes it into another word. For example, when the prefix ''un-'' is added to the word ''happy'', it creates the word ''unhappy'' ...
''z-'') Due to the distinction between adjectival and adverbial participles, in Polish it is practically impossible to make a
dangling participle A dangling modifier (also known as a dangling participle or illogical participle) is a type of ambiguous grammatical construct whereby a grammatical modifier could be misinterpreted as being associated with a word other than the one intended. A dan ...
in the classical English meaning of the term. For instance, in the sentence: *I found them hiding in the closet. it is unclear whether "I" or "they" were hiding in the closet. In Polish there is a clear distinction: * ''Znalazłem ich, chowając się w szafie.'' – ''chowając'' is a present adverbial participle agreeing grammatically with the subject ("I") * ''Znalazłem ich chowających się w szafie.'' – ''chowających'' is an active adjectival participle agreeing grammatically with the object ("them")


Russian

Verb: слышать sɫɨ.ʂɐtʲ(to hear,
imperfective aspect The imperfective (abbreviated or more ambiguously ) is a grammatical aspect used to describe ongoing, habitual, repeated, or similar semantic roles, whether that situation occurs in the past, present, or future. Although many languages have a gen ...
) *Present active: слышащий sɫɨ.ʂɐ.ɕːɪj"hearing", "who hears" *Present passive: слышимый sɫɨ.ʂɨ̞.mɨ̞j"being heard", "that is heard", "audible" *Past active: слышавший sɫɨ.ʂɐf.ʂɨ̞j"who heard", "who was hearing" *Past passive: слышанный sɫɨ.ʂɐn.nɨ̞j"that was heard", "that was being heard" *
Adverbial In English grammar, an adverbial (abbreviated ) is a word (an adverb) or a group of words (an adverbial clause or adverbial phrase) that modifies or more closely defines the sentence or the verb. (The word ''adverbial'' itself is also used as a ...
present active: слыша sɫɨ.ʂɐ"(while) hearing" *Adverbial past active: слышав sɫɨ.ʂɐf" (while) hearing " Verb: услышать ˈsɫɨ.ʂɐtʲ(to hear,
perfective aspect The perfective aspect (abbreviated ), sometimes called the aoristic aspect, is a grammatical aspect that describes an action viewed as a simple whole; i.e., a unit without interior composition. The perfective aspect is distinguished from the imp ...
) *Past active: услышавший ˈsɫɨ.ʂɐf.ʂɨ̞j"who has heard" *Past passive: услышанный ˈsɫɨ.ʂɐn.nɨ̞j"who has been heard" *Adverbial past active: услышав ˈsɫɨ.ʂɐf"having heard" Future participles formed from perfective verbs are not considered a part of standard language.


Bulgarian

Participles are adjectives formed from verbs. There are various kinds: Verb: правя ravja(to do, imperfective aspect): *Present active: правещ ravešt*Past active aorist: правил
ravil Ravil or Rawil ( tt-Cyrl, Равил; the feminine form is Равиля ''Ravilya'') is a given name widespread among the Tatars and Bashkirs. The origin of the name remains uncertain. According to one version, it is derived from the Hebrew name Re ...
*Past active imperfect: правел
ravel Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism in music, Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composer ...
(only used in
verb A verb () is a word (part of speech) that in syntax generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual descri ...
al constructions) *Past passive: правен
raven A raven is any of several larger-bodied bird species of the genus ''Corvus''. These species do not form a single taxonomic group within the genus. There is no consistent distinction between "crows" and "ravens", common names which are assigned t ...
*Adverbial present active: правейки ravejki Verb: направя apravja(to do, perfective aspect): *Past active aorist: направил apravil*Past active imperfect: направел apravel(only used in
verb A verb () is a word (part of speech) that in syntax generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual descri ...
al constructions) *Past passive: направен apraven


Macedonian

Macedonian has completely lost or transformed the participles of Common Slavic, unlike the other Slavic languages. The following points may be noted: * present active participle: this has transformed into a verbal adverb; * present passive participle: there are some isolated cases or remnants of the present passive participle, such as the word лаком
akom AKOM Production, Ltd. (Animation KOrea Movie 애이콤 프로덕션) is a South Korean animation studio in Songpa-gu, Seoul that has provided much work since its conception in 1985 by Nelson Shin. Its biggest claim to fame is the overseas animati ...
(greedy); * past active participle: there is only one remnant of the past active participle, which is the word бивш ivš(former). However, this word is often replaced with the word поранешен oranešen(former); * past passive participle: this has been transformed into a verbal adjective (it behaves like a normal adjective); * resultative participle: this has transformed into a verbal l-form (глаголска л-форма). It is not a participle since it doesn't function attributively.


Baltic languages


Lithuanian

Among Indo-European languages, the
Lithuanian language Lithuanian ( ) is an Eastern Baltic language belonging to the Baltic branch of the Indo-European language family. It is the official language of Lithuania and one of the official languages of the European Union. There are about 2.8 millio ...
is unique for having fourteen different participial forms of the verb, which 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 forms ''einąs/einantis'' ("going, walking", present tense), ''ėjęs'' (past tense), ''eisiąs'' (future tense), ''eidavęs'' (past frequentative tense), the passive participle forms ''einamas'' ("being walked", present tense), ''eitas'' (“walked” past tense), ''eisimas'' (future tense), the adverbial participles ''einant'' ("while e, different subjectis walking" present tense), ''ėjus'' (past tense), ''eisiant'' (future tense), ''eidavus'' (past frequentative tense), the semi-participle ''eidamas'' ("while e, the same subjectis going, walking") and the participle of necessity ''eitinas'' ("that which needs to be walked"). The active, passive, and the semi-participles are inflected by gender, and the active, passive, and necessity ones are inflected by case.


Semitic languages


Arabic

The Arabic verb has two participles: an active participle (''’ism al-fā‘il'' اسم الفاعل) and a passive participle (''’ism al-maf‘ūl'' اسم المفعول), and the form of the participle is predictable by inspection of the dictionary form of the verb. These participles are inflected for gender, number and case, but not person. Arabic participles are employed syntactically in a variety of ways: as nouns, as adjectives or even as verbs. Their uses vary across
varieties of Arabic The varieties (or dialects or vernacular languages) of Arabic, a Semitic language within the Afroasiatic family originating in the Arabian Peninsula, are the linguistic systems that Arabic speakers speak natively. There are considerable variati ...
. In general the active participle describes a property of the syntactic subject of the verb from which it derives, whilst the passive participles describes the object. For example, from the verb كتب ''kataba'', the active participle is ''kātib'' كاتب and the passive participle is ''maktūb'' مكتوب. Roughly these translate to "writing" and "written" respectively. However, they have different, derived lexical uses. كاتب ''kātib'' is further lexicalized as "writer", "author" and مكتوب ''maktūb'' as "letter". In
Classical Arabic Classical Arabic ( ar, links=no, ٱلْعَرَبِيَّةُ ٱلْفُصْحَىٰ, al-ʿarabīyah al-fuṣḥā) or Quranic Arabic is the standardized literary form of Arabic used from the 7th century and throughout the Middle Ages, most notab ...
these participles do not participate in verbal constructions with auxiliaries the same way as their English counterparts do, and rarely take on a verbal meaning in a sentence (a notable exception being participles derived from motion verbs as well as participles in Qur'anic Arabic). In certain
dialects of Arabic The varieties (or dialects or vernacular languages) of Arabic, a Semitic language within the Afroasiatic family originating in the Arabian Peninsula, are the linguistic systems that Arabic speakers speak natively. There are considerable variati ...
however, it is much more common for the participles, especially the active participle, to have verbal force in the sentence. For example, in dialects of the
Levant The Levant () is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is eq ...
, the active participle is a structure that describes the state of the syntactic subject after the action of the verb from which it derives has taken place. ''ʼĀkil'', the active participle of ''ʼakala'' ("to eat"), describes one's state after having eaten something. Therefore, it can be used in analogous way to the English
present perfect The present perfect is a grammatical combination of the present tense and perfect aspect that is used to express a past event that has present consequences. The term is used particularly in the context of English grammar to refer to forms like " ...
(for example, ''ʼAnā ʼākil'' انا آكل meaning "I have eaten", "I have just eaten" or "I have already eaten"). Other verbs, such as ''rāḥa'' راح ("to go") give a participle (''rāyiḥ'' رايح), which has a progressive ("is going…") meaning. The exact tense or continuity of these participles is therefore determined by the nature of the specific verb (especially its
lexical aspect In linguistics, the lexical aspect or Aktionsart (, plural ''Aktionsarten'' ) of a verb is part of the way in which that verb is structured in relation to time. For example, the English verbs ''arrive'' and ''run'' differ in their lexical aspect ...
and its transitivity) and the syntactic/semantic context of the utterance. What ties them all together is that they describe the subject of the verb from which they derive. The passive participles in certain dialects can be used as a sort of
passive voice A passive voice construction is a grammatical voice construction that is found in many languages. In a clause with passive voice, the grammatical subject expresses the ''theme'' or ''patient'' of the main verb – that is, the person or thing t ...
, but more often than not, are used in their various lexicalized senses as adjectives or nouns.


Hebrew

Like Arabic, Hebrew has two types of participles (בינוני ''bênônî''): an active participle (בינוני פועל ''bênônî pô‘ēl'') and a passive participle (בינוני פעול ''bênônî pā‘ûl''). These participles are inflected for gender and number, but not case, unlike Arabic. The active participle takes a variety of syntactic roles, such as a verb in present tense, a noun, and an adjective. Hebrew has a syntactic construction of the verb "to be" (הָיָה) ''hayá'' in the past tense, and the active participle that cognates to the
past progressive This article describes the uses of various verb forms in modern standard English language. This includes: * Finite verb forms such as ''go'', ''goes'' and ''went'' * Nonfinite forms such as ''(to) go'', ''going'' and ''gone'' * Combinations of s ...
tense in English. For example, the word עבדתי ''avádti'' means "I worked", and הייתי עובד ''hayíti ovéd'' means "I was working". Another use of this syntactic structure is equivalent to "used to" in English. For example, דויד בילדותו היה גר בארצות הברית ''davíd b'yaldutó hayá gar b'arcót habrít'' (David in his childhood used to live in the United States).


Finno-Ugric languages


Finnish

Finnish uses six participles (''partisiippi'') to convey different meanings. Below is a table displaying the declension of the participles of the verb tappaa (to kill). The participles work in the following way: Each and every one of these participles can be used as adjectives, which means that some of them can be turned into nouns.


Hungarian

Hungarian uses adjectival and adverbial participles. Adjectival participles (''melléknévi igenév'') can be one of these three types: * Present (active): ''olvas'' (read) – ''olvasó'' (reading), ''él'' (live) – ''élő'' (living) * Past (usually passive): ''zár'' (close) – ''zárt'' (closed) * Future (has a modal meaning): ''olvas'' (read) – ''olvasandó'' (to be read), ''fizet'' (pay) – ''fizetendő'' (to be paid) Adverbial participles (''határozói igenév'') can be: * Imperfect: ''siet'' (hurry) – ''sietve'' (hurrying, i.e. in a hurrying manner) * Perfect: ''bemegy'' (go in) – ''bemenvén'' (having gone in) (this form is rarely used in modern Hungarian) In Hungarian grammar the infinitive is also considered a kind of participle, namely the noun participle (''főnévi igenév'').


Turkic languages


Turkish

Participles are called ''sıfat-fiil'' (lit. adjective-verb) or ''ortaç'' in Turkish. Turkish participles consist of a verb stem and a suffix. Some participles may be conjugated, but some may not. Participles always precede the noun they are defining, as in English. Participle suffixes, like many other suffixes in Turkish, change according to the
vowel harmony In phonology, vowel harmony is an Assimilation (linguistics), assimilatory process in which the vowels of a given domain – typically a phonological word – have to be members of the same natural class (thus "in harmony"). Vowel harmony is t ...
and
sandhi Sandhi ( sa, सन्धि ' , "joining") is a cover term for a wide variety of sound changes that occur at morpheme or word boundaries. Examples include fusion of sounds across word boundaries and the alteration of one sound depending on near ...
. There are eight types of participle suffixes; ''-en'', ''-esi'', ''-mez'', ''-ar'', ''-di(k/ği)'' ''-ecek'' and ''-miş'' Ergin 310 Dâsitân-ı Sultân Mahmûd Mesnevisi'nde Fiiller, Süleyman Demirel Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi
, Osman Yıldız, May 2007 (PDF)


Eskimo-Aleut languages


Sireniki Eskimo

Sireniki Eskimo language Sirenik Yupik, Sireniki Yupik (also Old Sirenik or Vuteen), Sirenik, or Sirenikskiy is an extinct Eskimo–Aleut language. It was spoken in and around the village of Sireniki (Сиреники) in Chukotka Peninsula, Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, ...
, an extinct
Eskimo–Aleut language The Eskaleut (), Eskimo–Aleut or Inuit–Yupik–Unangan languages are a language family native to the northern portions of the North American continent and a small part of northeastern Asia. Languages in the family are indigenous to parts of w ...
, has separate sets of ''adverbial participles'' and ''adjectival participles''. Different from in English, adverbial participles are conjugated to reflect the person and number of their implicit subjects; hence, while in English a sentence like "If ''I'' were a marksman, ''I'' would kill walruses" requires two full clauses (to distinguish the two verbs' different subjects), in Sireniki Eskimo one of these may be replaced with an adverbial participle (since its conjugation indicates the subject).


Constructed languages


Esperanto

Esperanto Esperanto ( or ) is the world's most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Created by the Warsaw-based ophthalmologist L. L. Zamenhof in 1887, it was intended to be a universal second language for international communi ...
has six different participle conjugations; active and passive for past, present and future. The participles are formed as follows: For example, a ''falonta botelo'' is a bottle that will fall or is about to fall. A ''falanta botelo'' is one that is falling through the air. After it hits the floor, it is a ''falinta botelo.'' These examples use the active participles, but the usage of the passive participles is similar. A cake that is going to be divided is a ''dividota kuko''. When it is in the process of being divided, it is a ''dividata kuko''. Having been cut, it is now a ''dividita kuko''. These participles can be used in conjunction with the verb to be, ''esti'', forming 18 compound tenses (9 active and 9 passive). However, this soon becomes complicated and often unnecessary, and is only frequently used when rigorous translation of English is required. An example of this would be ''la knabo estos instruita'', or, the boy will have been taught. This example sentence is then in the future anterior. When the suffix ''-o'' is used, instead of ''-a'', then the participle refers to a person. A ''manĝanto'' is someone who is eating. A ''manĝinto'' is someone who ate. A ''manĝonto'' is someone who will eat. Also, a ''manĝito'' is someone who was eaten, a ''manĝato'' is someone who is being eaten, and a ''manĝoto'' is someone who will be eaten. These rules hold true for all transitive verbs. Since copular and intransitive verbs do not have passive voice, their participle forms can only be active. An informal and unofficial addition to these six are the participles for conditional forms, which use ''-unt-'' and ''-ut-''. For example, ''parolunto'' refers to someone who would speak (or would have spoken), and a ''leguta libro'' is a book that would be read (or have been read). These unofficial participle forms are however very rarely used in practice.


See also

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Attributive verb An attributive verb is a verb that modifies (expresses an attribute of) a noun in the manner of an attributive adjective, rather than express an independent idea as a predicate. In English (and in most European languages), verb forms that can be u ...
*
Gerund In linguistics, a gerund ( abbreviated ) is any of various nonfinite verb forms in various languages; most often, but not exclusively, one that functions as a noun. In English, it has the properties of both verb and noun, such as being modifiable ...
*
Grammar In linguistics, the grammar of a natural language is its set of structure, structural constraints on speakers' or writers' composition of clause (linguistics), clauses, phrases, and words. The term can also refer to the study of such constraint ...
*
Hanging participle A dangling modifier (also known as a dangling participle or illogical participle) is a type of ambiguous grammatical construct whereby a grammatical modifier could be misinterpreted as being associated with a word other than the one intended. A d ...
*
Nonfinite verb A nonfinite verb is a derivative form of a verb unlike finite verbs. Accordingly, nonfinite verb forms are inflected for neither number nor person, and they cannot perform action as the root of an independent clause. In English, nonfinite verbs inc ...
*
Transgressive (linguistics) In linguistic morphology, a transgressive is a special form of verb. It expresses a concurrently proceeding or following action. It is considered to be a kind of infinitive, or participle. It is often used in Balto-Slavic languages. Syntacticall ...
*
Converb In theoretical linguistics, a converb (abbreviated ) is a nonfinite verb form that serves to express adverbial subordination: notions like 'when', 'because', 'after' and 'while'. Other terms that have been used to refer to converbs include ''adverb ...


Notes


References


Participles
from the ''American Heritage Book of English Usage'' (1996). *Quirk, R; Greenbaum, S; Leech, G.; Svartvik, J. (1972). ''A Grammar of Contemporary English''. Longman.


External links



*Ernest De Witt Burton: Moods and Tenses of New Testament Greek

{{Authority control Syntactic entities is:Hættir sagna í íslensku#Lýsingarháttur