In linguistics, a participle (; abbr. ) 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 (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...
and
Arabic
Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...
grammar. In particular, Greek and Latin participles are
inflected
In linguistic Morphology (linguistics), morphology, inflection (less commonly, inflexion) is a process of word formation in which a word is modified to express different grammatical category, grammatical categories such as grammatical tense, ...
for
gender
Gender is the range of social, psychological, cultural, and behavioral aspects of being a man (or boy), woman (or girl), or third gender. Although gender often corresponds to sex, a transgender person may identify with a gender other tha ...
,
number
A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The most basic 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 can ...
and
case, but 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 produ ...
and can take prepositional and adverbial modifiers.
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 ...
. In English, participles are also associated with
periphrastic verb forms (
continuous and
perfect) and are widely used in
adverbial clauses. 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 ''adv ...
s (see
Sirenik below),
gerund
In linguistics, a gerund ( abbreviated ger) is any of various nonfinite verb forms in various languages; most often, but not exclusively, it is one that functions as a noun. The name is derived from Late Latin ''gerundium,'' meaning "which is ...
s,
gerundives,
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 ...
of the Greek grammatical term : ''metochē'', 'participation, participle'.
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 p ...
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 and adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can ca ...
(e.g. ''looked'', ''ended'', ''tutored'') but has numerous irregular forms (e.g. ''broken'', ''spoken'', ''eaten''); and
#present participle, which is formed with an ''
-ing
''-ing'' is a suffix used to make one of the inflection, 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 ...
'' 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 ...
versus ''active participles'' as often associated with e.g. the
present progressive tense, but such linguistic distinctions are neither recognized nor employed on a universal basis.
Types
Participles can be used adjectivally (i.e. without characteristics of canonical verbs) as ''
attributive adjective
An adjective ( abbreviated ) is a word that describes or defines a noun or noun phrase. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun.
Traditionally, adjectives are considered one of the main parts of speech of the English languag ...
s''. Unlike standard verbs, participles don’t typically have
objects or the usual modifiers that verbs have. However, they can be modified by adverbs such as ''very'' or ''slightly''. The difference is illustrated by the following examples:
*The subject interesting him is Greek history.
*Greek history is an interesting subject.
*Greek history is a very interesting subject.
In the first sentence, ''interesting'' functions transitively in a non-finite sense as a participle that expresses the object ''him'', thereby forming the grammatical equivalent of "
hat is''interesting him''". In the second and third sentences, ''interesting'' functions as a prepositive adjective modifying ''subject''. An adverb (such as ''very'' or ''recently'') or a prefix (such as ''un-'') can preface adjectival participles: "a ''very frightened'' rabbit", "''recently fallen'' leaves", "''uninterested'' people".
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 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 (linguistics), 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 ( ...
. Such languages include
Russian[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 Slavs, Slavic peoples and their descendants. They are thought to descend from a proto-language called Proto-Slavic language, Proto- ...
,
Hungarian, and many
Eskimo languages, such as
Sirenik,
[Menovshchikov, G.A.: Language of Sireniki Eskimos. Phonetics, morphology, texts and vocabulary. Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 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, 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 ''adv ...
s, gerund
In linguistics, a gerund ( abbreviated ger) is any of various nonfinite verb forms in various languages; most often, but not exclusively, it is one that functions as a noun. The name is derived from Late Latin ''gerundium,'' meaning "which is ...
s, or gerundives (though this is not consistent with the meanings of the terms ''gerund'' or ''gerundive'' as normally applied to English or Latin), or transgressives.
Tense
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 found ...
s or grammatical aspect
In linguistics, aspect is a grammatical category that expresses how a verbal action, event, or state, extends over time. For instance, perfective aspect is used in referring to an event conceived as bounded and unitary, without reference t ...
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'').
Voice
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 produ ...
: active or passive. 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, and the past participle has both active and passive uses.
The following examples illustrate those concepts:
* 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)
Indo-European languages
Germanic languages
Early English
In Old English
Old English ( or , or ), 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 developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...
, past participles of Germanic strong verb
In the Germanic languages, a strong verb is a verb that marks its past tense by means of Indo-European ablaut, changes to the stem vowel. A minority of verbs in any Germanic language are strong; the majority are ''Germanic weak verb, weak verbs'' ...
s were marked with a ''ge-'' prefix, a West Germanic feature still found in 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 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, 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 pe ...
, the form of the present participle varied across regions: ''-ende'' (southwest, southeast, Midlands), ''-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
Historically, grammarians have described a verbal noun or gerundial noun as a verb form that functions as a noun. An example of a verbal noun in English is 'sacking' as in the sentence "The ''sacking'' of the city was an epochal event" (wherein ...
s. See ''-ing'' (etymology).
Modern English
Modern English
Modern English, sometimes called New English (NE) or present-day English (PDE) as opposed to Middle and Old English, is the form of the English language that has been spoken since the Great Vowel Shift in England
England is a Count ...
includes two traditional terms for its participles:
* The ''present participle'', also sometimes called the '' active'', ''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 doing (something)" o ...
'', or '' progressive'' participle, takes the ending ''-ing'', for example ''doing'', ''seeing'', ''working'', ''running'', ''breaking'', ''understanding''. It is identical in form to the verbal noun
Historically, grammarians have described a verbal noun or gerundial noun as a verb form that functions as a noun. An example of a verbal noun in English is 'sacking' as in the sentence "The ''sacking'' of the city was an epochal event" (wherein ...
and gerund
In linguistics, a gerund ( abbreviated ger) is any of various nonfinite verb forms in various languages; most often, but not exclusively, it is one that functions as a noun. The name is derived from Late Latin ''gerundium,'' meaning "which is ...
(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'' 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, 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 Part of speech, parts of speech (word classes) in the English language. Like other types of words in the language, English verbs are not heavily inflection, inflected. Most combinations of Grammatical tense, tense ...
and List of English irregular verbs.
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 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. Some grammars use the ...
. 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.
4. Participles are used to form periphrastic 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 ...
:
* 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 (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 ...
construct.
6. As a gerund. The gerund
In linguistics, a gerund ( abbreviated ger) is any of various nonfinite verb forms in various languages; most often, but not exclusively, it is one that functions as a noun. The name is derived from Late Latin ''gerundium,'' meaning "which is ...
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 professor and public intellectual known for his work in linguistics, political activism, and social criticism. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is also a ...
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, including the sections on the present participle
In linguistics, a participle (; abbr. ) 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 adject ...
and past participle
In linguistics, a participle (; abbr. ) 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 adject ...
.
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 al ...
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 official 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 (''Landsmål''), parallel to the Da ...
and Swedish 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") 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 official 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 (''Landsmål''), parallel to the Da ...
:
* 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 one of the official written standards for the Norwegian language, alongside Nynorsk. Bokmål is by far the most used written form of Norwegian today, as it is adopted by 85% to 90% of the population in Norway. There is no cou ...
, 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 languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
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.
He once taught Jerome, an early Christian Church father who is most known for his translation of the Bible into Latin, known as the Latin Vulgate. N ...
, 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 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 in meaning, and thus mainly formed from transitive verbs, for example ''frāctus'' "broken", ''missus'' "sent (by someone)". However, certain verbs (called deponent verbs) have a perfect participle in an active 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 (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 ''être'', but active in verbal constructions with ''avoir'', 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.
*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".
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 classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...
participle shares in the properties of adjectives and verbs. Like an adjective, it changes form for gender
Gender is the range of social, psychological, cultural, and behavioral aspects of being a man (or boy), woman (or girl), or third gender. Although gender often corresponds to sex, a transgender person may identify with a gender other tha ...
, case, and number
A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The most basic 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 can ...
. 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 produ ...
, is modified by adverb An adverb is a word or an expression that generally modifies a verb, an adjective, another adverb, a determiner, a clause, a preposition, or a sentence. Adverbs typically express manner, place, time, frequency, degree, or level of certainty by ...
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 predicate ...
s, including an object. 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 and Urdu
There are two types of participles in Hindi
Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...
and Urdu
Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...
(called together 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 classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...
, Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...
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, ...
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 modern Welsh and by the impersonal form in literary 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 entails one or more transitive objects, for example, 'enjoys' in ''Amadeus enjoys music''. This contrasts with intransitive verbs, which do not entail transitive objects, for example, 'arose' in ''Beatrice arose ...
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 stem of a word. Particularly in the study of languages, a prefix is also called a preformative, because it alters the form of the word to which it is affixed.
Prefixes, like other affixes, can b ...
''z-'')
Due to the distinction between adjectival and adverbial participles, in Polish it is practically impossible to make a dangling participle 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)
*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 present active: слыша �sɫɨ.ʂɐ"(while) hearing"
*Adverbial past active: слышав �sɫɨ.ʂɐf"(while) hearing" (used mostly in the negative in the modern language, e.g. не слышав "without ever 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 ...
)
*Past active: услышавший �ˈsɫɨ.ʂɐf.ʂɨ̞j"who has heard"
*Past passive: услышанный �ˈsɫɨ.ʂɐn.nɨ̞j"that has been heard", "who has been heard"
*Adverbial past active: услышав �ˈsɫɨ.ʂɐf"having heard", "after hearing"
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: ravja(to do, imperfective aspect):
*Present active: ravešt*Past active aorist: ravil*Past active imperfect: ravel(only used in verb
A verb is a word that generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual description of English, the basic f ...
al constructions)
*Past passive: raven*Adverbial present active: ravejki
Verb: apravja(to do, perfective aspect):
*Past active aorist: apravil*Past active imperfect: apravel(only used in verb
A verb is a word that generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual description of English, the basic f ...
al constructions)
*Past passive: 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(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 does not function attributively.
Baltic languages
Lithuanian
Among Indo-European languages, the Lithuanian language
Lithuanian (, ) is an East Baltic languages, East Baltic language belonging to the Baltic languages, Baltic branch of the Indo-European language family. It is the language of Lithuanians and the official language of Lithuania as well as one of t ...
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'' ("what needs to be walked"). The active and passive participles and the semi-participles are inflected by gender, and the active, passive and necessity participles are inflected by case.
Semitic languages
Arabic
The Arabic verb has two participles: an active participle (''ʾism al-fāʿil'' اسم الفاعل) and a passive participle (''ʾism al-mafʿūl'' 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
Varieties of Arabic (or dialects or vernaculars) are the linguistic systems that Arabic speakers speak natively. Arabic is a Semitic languages, Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic family that originated in the Arabian P ...
. 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 or Quranic Arabic () is the standardized literary form of Arabic used from the 7th century and throughout the Middle Ages, most notably in Umayyad Caliphate, Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphate, Abbasid literary texts such as poetry, e ...
, the participles do not participate in verbal constructions with auxiliaries the same way as their English counterparts 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, 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 the subregion that borders the Eastern Mediterranean, Eastern Mediterranean sea to the west, and forms the core of West Asia and the political term, Middle East, ''Middle East''. In its narrowest sense, which is in use toda ...
, 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 (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 the participles is, therefore, determined by the nature of the specific verb (especially its 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 ...
, but more often than not, they 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. 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 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 of the participles can be used as adjectives and so 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, the noun participle (''főnévi igenév'').
Turkic languages
Turkish
Participles are called ''sıfat-fiil'' () 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, unlike in English.
Participle suffixes, like many other suffixes in Turkish, change according to the vowel harmony
In phonology, vowel harmony is a phonological rule in which the vowels of a given domain – typically a phonological word – must share certain distinctive features (thus "in harmony"). Vowel harmony is typically long distance, meaning tha ...
and sandhi
Sandhi ( ; , ) is any of 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 nearby sounds or the grammatical function o ...
.
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](_blank)
, Osman Yıldız, May 2007 (PDF)
An easy way to remember those is a mnemonic taught in Turkish schools: "''Anası mezar dikecekmiş''", which has every type of the suffixes, and is still a coherent sentence, translated as "his/her mother is allegedly going to plant (i.e. erect) a grave(stone)".
Eskimo–Aleut languages
Sirenik
Sirenik language, an extinct Eskimo–Aleut language, had separate sets of ''adverbial participles'' and ''adjectival participles''. Unlike in English, adverbial participles were conjugated to reflect the person and number of their implicit subjects; hence, an adverbial participle could replace a clause in the English sentence "If ''I'' were a marksman, ''I'' would kill walruses" since the subject was implied by the conjugation.
Constructed languages
Esperanto
Esperanto
Esperanto (, ) is the world's most widely spoken Constructed language, constructed international auxiliary language. Created by L. L. Zamenhof in 1887 to be 'the International Language' (), it is intended to be a universal second language for ...
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
* Attributive verb
*Gerund
In linguistics, a gerund ( abbreviated ger) is any of various nonfinite verb forms in various languages; most often, but not exclusively, it is one that functions as a noun. The name is derived from Late Latin ''gerundium,'' meaning "which is ...
*Grammar
In linguistics, grammar is the set of rules for how a natural language is structured, as demonstrated by its speakers or writers. Grammar rules may concern the use of clauses, phrases, and words. The term may also refer to the study of such rul ...
* Hanging participle
* Nonfinite verb
*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. Syntactical ...
*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 ''adv ...
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
MyEnglishTeacher.net, Advanced Learning Center, 2001.
*Ernest De Witt Burton.
, in
Syntax of the Moods and Tenses of New Testament Greek
', 1906, p. 169.
{{Authority control
Syntactic entities
is:Hættir sagna í íslensku#Lýsingarháttur