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In linguistics
Linguistics

Linguistics is the science study of natural language. Linguistics encompasses a number of sub-fields. An important topical division is between the study of language structure and the study of Meaning ....
, a participle (from Latin participium, a calque
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....
 of Greek µet??? "partaking") is a derivative of a non-finite
Non-finite verb

In linguistics, a non-finite verb is a verb form that is not limited by a subject and, more generally, is not fully inflection by categories that are marked inflectionally in language, such as grammatical tense, grammatical aspect, grammatical mood, grammatical number, grammatical gender, and grammatical person....
 verb
Verb

In syntax, a verb is a word that usually denotes an action , an occurrence , or a state of being . Depending on the language, a verb may vary in form according to many factors, possibly including its grammatical tense, grammatical aspect, grammatical mood and grammatical voice....
, which can be used in compound tenses
Grammatical tense

Grammatical tense is a temporal language quality expressing the time at, during, or over which a state or action denoted by a verb occurs.Tense is one of at least five qualities, along with grammatical mood, grammatical voice, grammatical aspect, and grammatical person, which verb forms may express....
 or voices
Grammatical voice

In grammar, the voice of a verb describes the relationship between the action that the verb expresses and the participants identified by its verb arguments ....
, or as a modifier
Grammatical modifier

In grammar, a modifier is a word or sentence element that limits or qualifies another word, a phrase, or a clause. In English, there are two kinds of modifiers: adjectives, which modify nouns and pronouns, and adverbs, which modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs....
. Participles often share properties with other parts of speech, in particular adjective
Adjective

In grammar, an adjective is a word whose main syntax role is to grammatical modifier a noun or pronoun, giving more information about the noun or pronoun's definition....
s and noun
Noun

In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open class lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition....
s.

lass="link1" onMouseover='showByLink("m1011397",this)' onMouseout='hide("m1011397")'href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/English_language">English
English language

English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...
 verbs have two participles:
  1. called variously the present, active, imperfect, or progressive participle, it is identical in form to the gerund
    Gerund

    In linguistics, ?gerund? is a term used to refer to various non-finite verb in various languages:* As applied to English language, it refers to what might be called a verb's action noun, which is one of the uses of the -ing form....
    ; the term present participle is sometimes used to include the gerund.






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    In linguistics
    Linguistics

    Linguistics is the science study of natural language. Linguistics encompasses a number of sub-fields. An important topical division is between the study of language structure and the study of Meaning ....
    , a participle (from Latin participium, a calque
    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....
     of Greek µet??? "partaking") is a derivative of a non-finite
    Non-finite verb

    In linguistics, a non-finite verb is a verb form that is not limited by a subject and, more generally, is not fully inflection by categories that are marked inflectionally in language, such as grammatical tense, grammatical aspect, grammatical mood, grammatical number, grammatical gender, and grammatical person....
     verb
    Verb

    In syntax, a verb is a word that usually denotes an action , an occurrence , or a state of being . Depending on the language, a verb may vary in form according to many factors, possibly including its grammatical tense, grammatical aspect, grammatical mood and grammatical voice....
    , which can be used in compound tenses
    Grammatical tense

    Grammatical tense is a temporal language quality expressing the time at, during, or over which a state or action denoted by a verb occurs.Tense is one of at least five qualities, along with grammatical mood, grammatical voice, grammatical aspect, and grammatical person, which verb forms may express....
     or voices
    Grammatical voice

    In grammar, the voice of a verb describes the relationship between the action that the verb expresses and the participants identified by its verb arguments ....
    , or as a modifier
    Grammatical modifier

    In grammar, a modifier is a word or sentence element that limits or qualifies another word, a phrase, or a clause. In English, there are two kinds of modifiers: adjectives, which modify nouns and pronouns, and adverbs, which modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs....
    . Participles often share properties with other parts of speech, in particular adjective
    Adjective

    In grammar, an adjective is a word whose main syntax role is to grammatical modifier a noun or pronoun, giving more information about the noun or pronoun's definition....
    s and noun
    Noun

    In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open class lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition....
    s.

    Participles in Modern English

    English
    English language

    English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...
     verbs have two participles:
    1. called variously the present, active, imperfect, or progressive participle, it is identical in form to the gerund
      Gerund

      In linguistics, ?gerund? is a term used to refer to various non-finite verb in various languages:* As applied to English language, it refers to what might be called a verb's action noun, which is one of the uses of the -ing form....
      ; the term present participle is sometimes used to include the gerund. The term gerund-participle is also used.
    2. called variously the past, passive, or perfect participle, it is usually identical to the verb's preterite
      Preterite

      The preterite is the grammatical tense expressing actions that took place in the past. It is similar to the aorist in languages such as Greek language....
       (past tense) form, though in irregular verbs the two usually differ.
    Examples of participle formation include:

    Verb    		Past
    Simple    		Past
    Participle    		Present
    Participle    		Regular/
    Irregular
    talktalkedtalking regular
    hirehiredhiring
    dodiddonedoingirregular
    saysaidsaying
    eatateeateneating
    writewrotewrittenwriting
    beatbeatbeatenbeating
    singsangsungsinging


    The present participle in English is active. It has the following uses:
    • forming the progressive aspect: Jim was sleeping.
    • modifying a noun, with active sense: Let sleeping dogs lie.
    • modifying a verb or sentence: Broadly speaking, the project was successful.
    The present participle in English has the same form as the gerund
    Gerund

    In linguistics, ?gerund? is a term used to refer to various non-finite verb in various languages:* As applied to English language, it refers to what might be called a verb's action noun, which is one of the uses of the -ing form....
    , but the gerund acts as a noun rather than a verb or a modifier. The word sleeping in Your job description does not include sleeping is a gerund and not a present participle.

    The past participle has both active and passive uses:
    • forming the perfect aspect
      Perfect aspect

      The perfect aspect is variously considered either an grammatical aspect or grammatical tense which calls a listener's attention to the consequences generated by an action, rather than the action itself....
      :       The chicken has       eaten.
    • forming the passive voice: The chicken was eaten.
    • modifying a noun, with active sense: our fallen comrades
    • modifying a noun, with passive sense: the attached files
    • modifying a verb or sentence, with passive sense: Seen from this perspective, the problem presents no easy solution.


    As noun-modifiers, participles usually precede the noun (like adjective
    Adjective

    In grammar, an adjective is a word whose main syntax role is to grammatical modifier a noun or pronoun, giving more information about the noun or pronoun's definition....
    s), but in many cases they can or must follow it:
    • The visiting dignitaries devoured the baked apples.
    • Please bring all the documents required.
    • The difficulties encountered were nearly insurmountable.


    Participles in other languages


    Sireniki Eskimo

    Sireniki Eskimo language, an extinct Eskimo-Aleut language, has separate sets of adverbial participles and adjectival participles. Interestingly, 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 (in order to distinguish the two verbs' different subjects), in Sireniki Eskimo one of these may be replaced with an adverbial participle (since its conjugation will indicate the subject).

    Arabic

    The Arabic verb has two participles: an active participle (??? ??????) and a passive participle (??? ??????? ), and the form of the participle is predictable by inspection of the dictionary form of the verb (see Arabic grammar
    Arabic grammar

    Arabic is a Semitic languages language. See Arabic language for more information on the language in general. This article describes the grammar of Classical Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic - the Arabic grammar ....
    ). 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

    The Arabic language is a Semitic language with many Variety that diverge widely from one another?both from country to country and within a single country....
    . In general the active participle describes a property of the syntactic subject of the verb from which it is derived, whilst the passive participles describes the object. For example, from the verb ??? kataba, the active participle is kaatibun ???? and the passive participle is maktuubun ?????. Roughly these translate to writing and written respectively. However, they have different, derived lexical uses. ???? kaatibun is further lexicalized as writer, author and ????? maktuubun as letter.

    In Classical Arabic
    Classical Arabic

    Classical Arabic , also known as Qur'anic or Koranic Arabic, is the form of the Arabic language used in literary texts from Umayyad Caliphate and Abbasid Caliphate times ....
     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 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 active participle is a structure which describes the state of the syntactic subject after the action of the verb from which it is derived has taken place. Aakel, the active participle of akal (to eat), describes one's state after having eaten something. Therefore it can be used in analogous way to the English present perfect tense (i.e.,Ana aakel ??? ??? meaning I have eaten, I have just eaten or I have already eaten). Other verbs, such as raaH ??? (to go) give a participle (raayeH ????) which has a progressive (is going...) meaning. The exact tense
    Tense

    Tense may refer to:*Grammatical tense, a temporal linguistic quality expressing the time at, during, or over which a state or action denoted by a verb occurs...
     or continuity
    Continuity

    Continuity may refer to:In mathematics:* Continuous probability distribution or random variable in probability and statistics* For functions:...
     of these participles is therefore determined by the nature of the specific verb (especially its Aktionsart
    Aktionsart

    The lexical aspect, or aktionsart , of a verb is a part of the way in which that verb is structured in relation to time. Any event, state, process, or action a verb expresses?collectively, any eventuality?may also be said to have the same lexical aspect....
     and its transitivity
    Transitivity

    The term transitivity may refer to:In grammar* Transitivity * Transitive verb, when a verb takes an object* Intransitive verbIn logic and mathematics...
    ) 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 are derived. The passive participles in certain dialects can be used as a sort of passive voice, but more often than not, are used in their various lexicalized senses as adjectives or nouns.

    Latin

    Compared with English, Latin
    Latin

    Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
     has an additional future tense
    Future tense

    In grammar, the future tense is a verb form that marks the event described by the verb as not having happened yet, but expected to happen in the future , or to happen subsequent to some other event, whether that is past, present, or future ....
     participle:

    • present active participle: educans "teaching"
    • perfect passive participle: educatus "(having been) taught"
    • future active participle: educaturus "about to teach"
    • future passive participle: educandus "about to be taught"


    Old English

    • In Old English, present participles ended in -ende or -iende depending on verb class. In Middle English
      Middle English

      Middle English is the name given by historical linguistics to the diverse forms of the English language spoken between the Norman conquest of England of 1066 and about 1470, when the #Chancery Standard, a form of London-based English, began to become widespread, a process aided by the introduction of the printing press into England by William...
      , various forms were used in different regions: -ende (SW, SE, Midlands), -inde (SW, SE), -and (N), -inge (SE). This latter form eventually fell together with the suffix -ing, used to form verbal nouns.
    • Past participles were marked with a ge- prefix, as is done today in Dutch and High German.


    Lithuanian

    Among Indo-European languages, the Lithuanian language
    Lithuanian language

    Lithuanian is the official state language of Lithuania and is recognised as one of the official languages of the European Union. There are about 2.96 million native Lithuanian speakers in Lithuania and about 170,000 abroad....
     is unique for having thirteen different participial forms of the verb, that 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 form einas/einantis ("going, walking", present tense), the passive participle form einamas ("being walked", present tense), the adverbial participle einant ("while it is being walked"), the semi-participle eidamas ("while [he is/was] going, walking") and the participle of necessity eitinas ("that which needs to be walked"). The first three of those five are inflected by tense, while the active, passive and the semi- participles are inflected by gender and the active, passive and necessity ones are inflected by case.

    French

    There are two basic participles:
    • Present active participle: formed with the verb root + ant: marchant "walking", étant "being"
    • 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 "ętre", 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"


    Spanish

    In Spanish, the 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 verbal form any longer, as they become adjectives or nouns on their own: e.g. amante "loving", viviente "living" or "live".

    The continuous is constructed much as in English, using a conjugated form of estar (to be) plus the gerundio (sometimes called a verbal adverb or adverbial participle as it does not decline) with the suffixes -ando, -endo or -iendo: 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).

    The past participle (participio pasado or pasivo) is regularly formed with one of the suffixes -ado, -ido, but several verbs have an irregular form ending in -to (e.g. escrito, visto), or -cho (e.g. dicho, hecho). The past participle is used generally as an adjective meaning a finished action, or to form the passive voice, and it is variable in gender and number in these uses; and also it is used to form the compound tenses (as in English) in which it has only one form, the singular male one. Some examples:

    As an adjective
    • las cartas escritas "the written letters"
    In the passive voice
    • Los ladrones fueron capturados "The thieves were caught."
    To form compound tenses
    • Ella ha escrito una carta. "She has written a letter."


    Finnish

    Verb: tehdä (to do)

    Present active: tekevä
    Present passive: tehtävä
    Past active: tehnyt
    Past passive: tehty
    Agent participle (passive): tekemä (done by...)

    Negative participle: tekemätön

    Russian

    Verb: ??????? slyšat' (to hear, imperfective aspect
    Imperfective aspect

    The imperfective aspect is a grammatical aspect. It refers to an action that is viewed from a particular viewpoint as ongoing, habitual, repeated, or generally containing internal structure....
    )

    Present active: ???????? slyšašcij "hearing", "who hears"
    Present passive: ???????? slyšimyj "being heard", "that is heard", "able to be heard"
    Past active: ????????? slyšavšij "who heard"
    Past passive: ????????? slyšannyj "that was heard"
    Adverbial
    Adverbial participle

    Adverbal participles are built out of a verb , and in most cases they play the role of the sentence element called adverbial in the grammar of some languages ....
     present active: ????? slyša "(while) hearing"
    Adverbial past active: ?????? slyšav "having been hearing"

    Verb: ???????? uslyšat' (to hear, perfective aspect
    Perfective aspect

    In grammar, the perfective aspect is an grammatical aspect that exists in many languages. The term "perfective aspect" is generally used to refer to an action viewed as a single whole, and it is equivalent to the aspectual component of tenses variously called "aorist", "preterite", and "simple past"....
    )

    Past active: ?????????? uslyšavšyj "who has heard"
    Past passive: ?????????? uslyšannyj "that has been heard"
    Adverbial past active: ??????? uslyšav "having heard"

    Bulgarian

    Verb: ????? pravja (to do, imperfective aspect)

    Present active: ?????? pravešt
    Past active aorist: ?????? pravil
    Past active imperfect: ?????? pravel (only used in verb
    Verb

    In syntax, a verb is a word that usually denotes an action , an occurrence , or a state of being . Depending on the language, a verb may vary in form according to many factors, possibly including its grammatical tense, grammatical aspect, grammatical mood and grammatical voice....
    al constructions)
    Past passive: ?????? praven
    Adverbial present active: ???????? pravejki

    Verb: ??????? napravja (to do, perfective aspect)
    Past active aorist: ???????? napravil
    Past active imperfect: ???????? napravel (only used in verb
    Verb

    In syntax, a verb is a word that usually denotes an action , an occurrence , or a state of being . Depending on the language, a verb may vary in form according to many factors, possibly including its grammatical tense, grammatical aspect, grammatical mood and grammatical voice....
    al constructions)
    Past passive: ???????? napraven

    Kinds of participles in various languages


    Adverbial and adjectival


    In some languages, a distinction between adverbial participle
    Adverbial participle

    Adverbal participles are built out of a verb , and in most cases they play the role of the sentence element called adverbial in the grammar of some languages ....
     and adjectival participle
    Adjectival participle

    Adjectival participles are built out of a verb , and in most cases they play the role of the sentence element called attribute in the grammar of some languages ....
     can be made. See ????????? and ???????????? in Russian grammar
    Russian grammar

    Russian grammar encompasses:* a highly Synthetic language morphology* a syntax that, for the literary language, is the conscious fusion of three elements:...
    , határozói igenév and melléknévi igenév in Hungarian grammar
    Hungarian grammar

    Hungarian grammar is the study of the rules governing the use of the Hungarian language, a Finno-Ugric language spoken in Hungary and in adjacent areas of Romania, Slovakia, Ukraine, Serbia, Croatia, Austria, and Slovenia ....
    , or imieslów in Polish grammar. Also many Eskimo languages make such a distinction, see for details e.g. the sophisticated participle system of Sireniki Eskimo.

    Perfect passive participle


    The perfect passive participle means having been, for example

    The dog, having been praised by its master, was happy or — The dog, praised by its master, was happy

    The perfect passive participle is the most used participle

    In Latin, deponent verbs are passive in form but active in meaning and the participle ending in -us is active.

    precor, precari, precatus sum: Precatus, having prayed

    laudo, laudare, laudavi, laudatus: Laudatus — Having been praised

    See also


    • Grammar
      Grammar

      Grammar is the field of linguistics that covers the conventions governing the use of any given natural language. It includes morphology and syntax, often complemented by phonetics, phonology, semantics, and pragmatics....
    • Hanging participle
    • Verbal
      Verbal

      Verbal may mean:*Non-finite verb, a verb form that functions both as a verb and as another lexical category.*A word or group of words that functions as a verb by serving as the head of a verb phrase....
    • Adjectival participle
      Adjectival participle

      Adjectival participles are built out of a verb , and in most cases they play the role of the sentence element called attribute in the grammar of some languages ....
    • Adverbial participle
      Adverbial participle

      Adverbal participles are built out of a verb , and in most cases they play the role of the sentence element called adverbial in the grammar of some languages ....
    • Gerund
      Gerund

      In linguistics, ?gerund? is a term used to refer to various non-finite verb in various languages:* As applied to English language, it refers to what might be called a verb's action noun, which is one of the uses of the -ing form....
    • Attributive verb
      Attributive verb

      In grammar, an attributive verb is a verb which modifies a noun, rather than expressing an independent idea as a predicate .In English, verbs may only be attributive as participles: the walking man; a walked dog; uneaten food....