Participle and Participial Phrases There are two types of participles: present participle and past participle. The present participle is indicated by “ing” attached to a verb (“ing” form), and the past participle is generally indicated by “ed” attached to a verb (except for irregular verbs that have special form of past participle). These participial forms can function as adjectives (called verbal adjectives), such as: hard working farmer, increasing price, cultivated land, broken tree, etc. Like adjectives, they qualify nouns or pronouns, and like verbs, they may take objects and may be described by adverbial qualifiers. Therefore, a participle with qualifiers or objects is called participial phases. However, participles are commonly used as qualifiers of the nouns that follow them. In the following examples, observe several positions of the participles and participial phases, and the nouns and pronouns they qualify.

Present and past participles The following are some examples of sentences employing present and past participles. Increasing price of fertilizers and pesticides will impose high production cost on agricultural products. (“increasing” is a present participle qualifying the noun “price of fertilizers and pesticides”). The government introduces the biological control as a part of integrated pest management program. (“integrated” is a past participle qualifying the noun “pest management program”). Babies crying in the night bother me (“crying” is a present participle qualifying the noun baby) These squandered opportunities will not come again soon (“squandered” is a past participle qualifying the noun “opportunities”)

A participial phrase consists of the participle, its modifiers, and other words needed to complete the idea begun by the participle. This type of phrase generally follows immediately after or right before the noun it describes. Leaving the press conference, the politician felt confident about her answers. A memo sent to all the employees was well received. The teacher's best lesson delivered to his eighth graders dealt with literary allusions. My dad's present, bought by his sisters, was a gold watch. Acclaimed by many critics as the year's best movie, The Sound of Music won many awards. The Sound of Music, acclaimed by many critics as the year's best movie, won many awards.

Don't mistake a present participle phrase for a gerund phrase Gerund and present participle phrases are easy to confuse because they both begin with an ing word. The difference is the function that they provide in the sentence. A gerund phrase will always behave as a noun while a present participle phrase will act as an adjective. Example: Walking on the beach, Delores dodged jellyfish that had washed ashore. Walking on the beach is painful if jellyfish have washed ashore.

Waking to the buzz of the alarm clock, Freddie cursed the arrival of another Monday. Freddie hates waking to the buzz of the alarm clock After a long day at school and work, LaShae found her roommate Ben eating the last of the leftover pizza Ben's rudest habit is eating the last of the leftover pizza.

Activity- Participial Phrase or Not? Indicate whether the underlined group of words in each sentence is a participial phrase by writing PART on the line before the sentence. If it is not, write NO on the line. ____ The tourists were waiting for the leader's directions. ____ Startled by the loud noise, the parakeet excitedly flew around the cage. ____ The birds soaring above us were enjoying themselves. ____ Leaving her child at nursery school on the first day of class was not easy for Mrs. Plunkett. ____ It was difficult for Perkins to remember his neighbor's telephone number. ____ The director speaking to the cast members is Mr. Flores. ____ Burning leaves in one's backyard is illegal in our village. ____ The screens placed into their windows by Patsy had been repaired by Doug Hayes. ____ Reading three newspapers a day, Christine enjoyed herself on Cape Cod that week. ____ Frolicking with the dogs was fun for Luke's cat.

Assignment 1 Make your own sentences employing present participle, past participle, and participial phrases (5 each).