Past Participles

In this video, we’ll explain past participles and how to use them effectively in English. Learn how they work in perfect tenses, passive voice, and even as adjectives. By the end, you’ll confidently use past participles in conversation!

Grammar

Practice how to differentiate Past Participles.

Transcript

Watch Our Video

Introduction:

• Host: Hello and welcome to the English Magnet. Today’s video: Past Participles Made Easy! How about we cover the pesky past participles; so common and yet so elusive?! Some are verbs, others are adjectives and some can even be nouns. We’ll also talk about participial phrases and dangling participles, stay tuned to see what that’s all about. Knowing how past participles function in different contexts is key to preventing any confusion. Let’s go!

Part 1: Verbs

First of all, past participles are most commonly associated with verbs, or rather as part of a verb; they are accompanied by an auxiliary forming perfect tenses. These refer to an action completed at some point before or continuing up to a specific time. 

1. Present Perfect:

• Example: We have visited Paris twice. 
• Structure: [have/has] + past participle

2. Past Perfect:
   • Example: Anita had just done the report before Mark’s arrival.
   • Structure: [had] + past participle
3. Future Perfect:
   • Example: I will have eaten by the time you arrive. 
   • Structure: [will have] + past participle 

Here past participles are preceded by an auxiliary; the verb ‘to have’ in the present simple, past simple or future simple. The idea is that the past participle carries the ongoing action expressed in a sentence. Remember that adverbs can squeeze in between the auxiliary and the past participle. 

You will also find a past participle in perfect continuous tenses, however there’s a catch. That past participle is part of the auxiliaries; so it’s always ‘been’ the past participle of ‘to be’. The verb expressing the action is the following present participle (the ING form) at the end of the verb. 

4. Present Perfect Continuous:
   • Example: It has been beeping all morning.
   • Structure: [have/has been] + present participle
5. Past Perfect Continuous:
   • Example: You had been eating before the phone rang.
   • Structure: [had been] + present participle
6. Future Perfect Continuous:
   • Example: By tomorrow, we will have been fixing the car for a month.
   • Structure: [will have been] + present participle

As you can see, in perfect continuous tenses, the past participle is always ‘been’.

In the passive voice, the past participle is used to show that something is being done to the subject, rather than the subject doing the action. It works together with a form of the verb ‘to be’. So, its structure is ‘to be’ + past participle. 

Example: 

The project was done by the interns. Obviously, the project didn’t do anything, it’s the interns who have done the project. 

The car will be repaired next week. Again, the car is not the one that will be doing the repairs, here it’s implied that it will be a mechanic. The car is the one that will be undergoing repairs. 

In both sentences the passive voice is formed with the verb to be and a past participle. You can recognize it by looking for a verb ‘to be’ in front of the past participle. Moreover, logically the subject of a sentence in the passive voice isn’t doing the action but rather undergoing it (the project isn’t doing, it’s being done and the car isn’t repairing it’s being repaired). 

Part 2: Adjectives

In many instances, when you encounter a past participle its role is actually that of an adjective. The key is to find it linked to a noun, more often than not, placed before it. These adjectives can describe: 

1. States or conditions resulting from an action.

• Example: I called the repairman about the broken window. (The window is in a broken state, in need of repair.) 

Keep in mind that some adjectives can be compounded; meaning formed with two words

• Example: She sent us a well-written report. (The report is in a good completed condition; it’s well-written.)

2. Feelings or emotions modifying nouns.

• Example: The excited children couldn’t wait for the party. (The children are described as feeling excitement.)

Watch out! Two past participles can be found in the same sentence with them playing a different role respectively. 

Example: The burnt steak was burnt by the chef. This sentence is redundant, but it illustrates perfectly the use of past participles as both verbs and adjectives. The first one is clearly an adjective (the condition of the steak is that it’s carbonized) while the second one is part of a verb for the passive voice ‘was burnt’. It’s telling us the chef messed up the steak by incinerating it. 

Part 3: Nouns

Past participles can sometimes function as nouns, though this is less common than their use as verbs or adjectives. When a past participle is used as a noun, it refers to a person or thing affected by an action, often in a more abstract sense. These nouns are usually created from past participle adjectives or verb phrases that have shifted into nouns over time. 

Example: 

1. The accused was found guilty by a jury of his peers.
   • Accused functions as a noun here, referring to the person who was accused of a crime. 
2. The injured were taken to the hospital.
   • Injured refers to a group of people who have been hurt.
3. The chosen were invited to the ceremony.
   • Chosen acts as a noun, meaning the people who were selected. Keep in mind that by adding ‘ones’ we would be dealing with a past participle as an adjective: The chosen ones were invited to the ceremony. Because ‘chosen’ would be modifying ‘ones’. 

Part 4: Participial Phrases

A quick word on participial phrases: these act as adjectives. A participial phrase begins with a participle and is followed by an object, a modifier, or a prepositional phrase. So it adds information to a main clause or a complete sentence. In other words, it’s a group of words that adds descriptive detail to a sentence. In itself, it’s not a complete sentence but when removed the remaining words still form a complete sentence although the meaning might be slightly different. Both present and past participles can be used, but here we focus on the latter. So, note that a past participle in the phrase usually shows a completed action or condition related to the noun.

Example: 

Shocked by the news, Deborah sat in silence. The past participial phrase ‘Shocked by the news’ describes Deborah, telling us more about her emotional state. The use of the past participle tells us that the shock happened before (probably just before) she sat in silence. 

Here the main sentence is ‘Deborah sat in silence’. ‘shocked by the news’ is the participial phrase (past participle + adverb; shocked how? by the news). This group of words modifies the subject ‘Deborah’ as she is the one shocked by the news. The order of the phrase and main sentence isn’t rigid, go with what sounds better to you. 

Deborah, shocked by the news, sat in silence.

Deborah sat in silence, shocked by the news.

Last but certainly not least, a big thing to keep in mind; dangling participles! These happen when the participial phrase does not logically modify the noun it’s supposed to. In other words, this takes place when a participial phrase intends to modify a noun that’s not in the sentence. 

Example: 

• Exhausted after a long day, the bed looked incredibly inviting. (Who is exhausted? The bed!? We know a bed can’t be exhausted but grammatically this is what this sentence implies, we need to tweak it.)
• Exhausted after a long day, she found the bed incredibly inviting. Now, this makes sense; ‘she’ is the one who is exhausted and the sentence clearly matches the participle with the right subject.  

• Host: So, there you have it, past participles through and through! Whether they act as verbs, adjectives or nouns, you know how to label them! Don’t fall for dangling participles and you’re good to go! Hopefully, this has been helpful. A link to some free material to practice by yourselves can be found in the description below. Keep practicing, and you’ll get the hang of it. Thank you for watching. Until next time!