Present Participles

Unlock the mystery of present participles in English with this easy-to-follow guide! In this video, we’ll break down what present participles are, how they’re formed, and their common uses in everyday English. Perfect for English learners at any level looking to strengthen their grammar skills.

Grammar

Practice how to differentiate Present Participles.

Transcript

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Introduction:

• Host: Hello and welcome to the English Magnet. Today’s video: Present Participles Made Easy! How about we cover the types of -ING words peppered all over the English language. Some are verbs, others are adjectives and some are even nouns. We’ll also talk about participial phrases, keep watching to learn more about that. Understanding the different functions of present participles is crucial to avoid any confusion. Let’s begin!

Part 1: Verbs

Alright, so present participles are most commonly known as verbs, or rather as part of a verb; they are accompanied by an auxiliary and always refer to an ongoing action, although the timeframe can change wildly. They are predominantly found in continuous tenses to express an ongoing action at the referred time. 

1. Present Continuous:
   • Example: She is running ahead of her opponents.
   • Structure: [am/is/are] + present participle
2. Past Continuous:
   • Example: They were already watching a movie when I came in.
   • Structure: [was/were] + present participle
3. Future Continuous:
   • Example: I will be studying tomorrow in the library.
   • Structure: [will be] + present participle

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

Present participles are also found in perfect continuous tenses. 

4. Present Perfect Continuous:
   • Example: He has been working all day.
   • Structure: [have/has] been + present participle
5. Past Perfect Continuous:
   • Example: They had been traveling before the storm hit.
   • Structure: [had been] + present participle
6. Future Perfect Continuous:
   • Example: By next year, I will have been living here for a decade.
   • Structure: [will have been] + present participle

In perfect continuous tenses, the auxiliary is ‘to have + been’. To have is in the present simple, past simple or future simple but ‘been’ is constant. These tenses are used to describe actions that were, have been, or will be ongoing for a certain period of time and are linked to another point in time. 

Part 2: Adjectives

Yeap, present participles can also act as adjectives, so they look like verbs, but when they’re adjectives they describe or qualify a noun. When it’s a verb, it’s attached to an auxiliary, remember right?, well when it’s an adjective it’s usually placed before a noun. 

Example: The barking dog woke me up. 

Obviously, ‘barking’ is the only word ending in -ing in the sentence. However, it’s not the verb, that’s ‘woke up’. ‘barking’ describes the noun ‘dog’. The dog could be brown, cute, sleepy or loud, but in this case ‘barking’ is how it’s being described here.

An -ING word can also be an adjective when placed after a linking verb. That’s a verb not carrying an action per se but rather introducing a state or feeling. In short, they are not action verbs, they simply link a subject with some information. (be, appear, look, seem, become, smell, taste just to name a few). 

Example: This trip looks promising. 

Here the -ing word is clearly an adjective. Yes, ‘promising’ looks like a verb, but here it’s qualifying the trip so it’s an adjective. You can swap it with another adjective to double check: This trip looks fun. Yeap, an adjective for sure! To be clear, ‘promising’ can totally be used as a verb when it’s a present participle. 

Example: HR has been promising me a raise for months now. Plugging an adjective here wouldn’t make any sense: HR has been fun me a raise for months now. Nah, that’s just wrong. 

Pro tip, to check whether or not you’re dealing with a linking verb replace it with ‘to be’. If the sentence still makes sense you’re dealing with a linking verb. – This trip is promising. The sentence basically means the same as with ‘looks’ proving we’re dealing with a linking verb followed by an adjective ending in -ing (promising). 

By the way, you can absolutely find both a present participle and an -ING adjective in the same sentence: 

Example: She’s telling a thrilling story. 

Which one is a verb? That’s ‘telling’ as ‘is telling’ is the action expressed in the present continuous while ‘thrilling’ is an adjective to describe the story. We could switch ‘thrilling’ with ‘dramatic’ or ‘lively’ and the sentence would still make sense. (adjectives are swapped with the original one on the screen). 

Part 3: Nouns

Now, you will also stumble upon words ending in -ING that are neither verbs nor adjectives, but rather nouns! These nouns are, of course, derived from verbs. They can either be verbal nouns or gerunds. The distinction between a verbal noun and a gerund can be a bit subtle since both are derived from verbs, but they serve different roles in a sentence. Here’s a breakdown:

Gerunds exclusively end in -ing, they are nouns but retain a verb-like quality. The oddity is that a gerund is modified by an adverb rather than an adjective, so it’s a bit halfway between verbs and nouns. (they can also take an object) To be clear, gerunds are nouns as they can be subjects or objects. 

Example: Swimming silently in the ocean helps me gather my thoughts. 

Here swimming is clearly the subject of the verb and it’s a gerund as it’s modified by the adverb silently. For more info on gerunds, click the link.

Verbal nouns also come from verbs, but unlike gerunds they can have many endings. However, at the moment we’ll focus on the -ing ending for consistency. The distinction with gerunds is that verbal nouns are fully-fledged nouns, they can also be subjects or objects but adjectives will describe them, not adverbs. 

Example: The intense swimming of the national team secured gold at the World Championship. 

Look at that, swimming is again the subject of the sentence but it’s qualified by an adjective ‘intense’ not ‘intensely’. 

We can also have gerunds and verbal nouns as objects. 

Example: The children enjoy drawing diligently in their scrapbook. 

Drawing is the object here (enjoy what? = drawing) and it’s a gerund as it’s modified by an adverb. (diligently). 

Example: The artist produced a masterful drawing. 

Drawing is the object again (produced what? = a drawing) and it’s a verbal noun as it’s described by an adjective (masterful). 

If you find a noun ending in -ING but without an adjective or adverb attached to it, add one for yourself, you’ll see which fits better and then you’ll know whether you’re dealing with a gerund or verbal noun. 

Part 4: Participial Phrase

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. Note that when placed at the beginning of a sentence it’s followed by a comma, when in the middle of a sentence it’s set off by commas and when at the end it usually has a comma before it. 

Example: 

Smiling brightly, the children played in the yard. 

Here the main sentence is ‘the children played in the yard’. ‘smiling brightly’ is the participial phrase (present participle + adverb). This group of words modifies the subject ‘children’ as they are the ones smiling brightly. A smiling yard wouldn’t make much sense anyway. You can move the participial phrase around if you want to, the meaning stays the same. 

The children, smiling brightly, played in the yard. (shown on screen)

The children played in the yard, smiling brightly. (shown on screen)

Participial phrases can also add information to the object of a sentence, not only the subject. When modifying an object the participial phrase is generally placed at the end of the sentence. 

Example: They were watching the sunset, bathing the sky in a warm glow. 

Here, obviously the participial phrase is found at the end and it modifies the object ‘sunset’. Its structure is present participle (bathing) + object (the sky) + prepositional phrase (in a warm glow). If we were to remove it the main sentence would still make sense ‘they were watching the sunset’. But including it adds meaningful information and just makes the sentence more complex and telling. Host: So, there you have it, present participles in all their glory and participial phrases as a bonus! Whether they act as verbs, adjectives or nouns, now you know! 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!