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# participle

«participle» in Mova's school dictionary: **a form of a verb used to make tenses or used like an…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### part of speech

noun (a participle, participles)

### meaning for a pupil

1) A participle is a form of a verb used to make tenses or used like an adjective. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/participle/#m1)

2) The present participle ends in «-ing»: running, eating, singing. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/participle/#m2)

3) The past participle often ends in «-ed», «-en» or has a special form: walked, eaten, sung, gone. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/participle/#m3)

### sense in the lessons

In English grammar lessons participles help make tenses: «I am running» (present participle), «I have eaten» (past participle), «The window was broken» (passive). They also act like adjectives: «a crying baby», «a broken toy». In SATs grammar tests pupils are asked to find or use them. Phrases: «present participle», «past participle», «participle phrase».

### examples

- In «She is singing», singing is the present participle. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/participle/#x1)
- In «I have finished my homework», finished is the past participle. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/participle/#x2)
- The past participle of «go» is «gone». [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/participle/#x3)
- «A broken window» uses the past participle as an adjective. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/participle/#x4)
- Write the past participle of «write»: written. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/participle/#x5)
- Some verbs have odd participles, such as swim, swam, swum. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/participle/#x6)
- «Running late, we jumped in the car» starts with a participle phrase. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/participle/#x7)

### note

Countable. Irregular verbs have past participles you must learn (see, saw, seen; take, took, taken). Trap: «I have went» is wrong in Standard English; it is «I have gone». Another trap: «I seen it» uses the participle without «have»; Standard English is «I saw it» or «I have seen it».

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «participle» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/participle/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.