Participles & Gerunds

1    Participles

Participles are part verb and part adjective.

How are participles formed?

They are formed from verbs.

There are two basic types: the present and the past participle.

The present participle is the part of the verb ending in -ing.

Examples:  singing, writing, flying, eating, being, taking etc.

The past participle is the part of the verb which can be used with the verb to be (is, are, was, were etc.) or the verb to have (has, have, had) and has/have/had been) to form various verb tenses.

Examples:   sung, written, flown, eaten, been, taken etc.

How are participles used?

a    They can be used to form tenses of verbs:

Examples:   I have sung;  she has written;  they have travelled, you are reading; it is raining 

b    They can also be used as adjectives.

The fleeing refugees sought safety.    Present participle used as an adjective

The broken window needs repair.       Past participle used as an adjective

The power of the written word is remarkable.      Past participle used as an adjective

The climbing rose wound itself around the doorway.       Present participle used as an adjective

Participles are very useful parts of speech as they have so many functions.  We all use them in everyday speech and prose even if we don’t realise it.

Beware:  Dangling Participles

The participle is subject to considerable – and often entertaining – misuse.

When a participle is used without the noun or pronoun it qualifies or describes, it is called a dangling participle – because it dangles alone and fails to make sense.

Consider the following example:
Relaxing on top of the skyscraper, the ocean was in sight.
Who or what was really relaxing on top of the skyscraper?

In grammatical terms, the participle relaxing agrees with/describes/qualifies the closest noun (or noun substitute) in the main clause – and that is ocean.

Common sense tells us that the ocean could not possibly have been relaxing on top of the skyscraper.   Clearly, therefore, this sentence needs to be restructured so that we have a point of reference – the noun or pronoun to which the participle refers.

A suggestion: While I was relaxing on top of the skyscraper, I could see the ocean.

More unintended humour:
Laughing loudly, the ringing of the phone went unnoticed.

Jumping up and down with excitement, the helicopter was awaiting the children.

Listening to the band, my feet began to tap. 

For the sake of common sense, these sentences need to be restructured.   

By the way, you may well be surprised by the number of dangling participles appear in professional prose these days.  See if you can spot them!

2    Gerunds

The gerund is a verbal noun.   It’s like a noun in that it’s the name of something, usually an activity.  It’s like a verb in that it is formed from a verb.  In appearance, it is the same as a present participle.  See above.

Examples: John likes climbing.

Here climbing is the name of an activity.

It is formed from the verb to climb and it looks the same as the participle, climbing.  We know, however, that, in this context, climbing is a gerund because of its function in the sentence.

In contrast, consider the following sentence:

The climbing rose wound itself around the doorway.

Here climbing is a present participle functioning as an adjective.  It is formed from the verb to climb, but we can see that, in this context, its function is adjectival i.e. it describes the rose.

Typical examples:

Many people enjoy online shopping.

I do not like flying.

Skiing is fun.

Because gerunds are part verbs they can take objects or be followed by prepositions:

Rita likes playing the violin.

Tom prefers eating chocolate.

The children like watching television.

Their parents enjoy listening to music.

Listening to children is important.

Linda is frightened of going to the dentist.

N.B.   Because a gerund functions as a noun, it needs to be treated as a noun.

Consider this example:

We shouldn’t say:  Will me arriving at ten o’clock be convenient?  

It should be:  Will my arriving at ten o’clock be convenient?  

 Think about it: we would say my arrival not me arrival.   In the same way, the gerund, arriving, needs to have a possessive adjective before it.

Similarly:   It all depends on our having a long weekend.

Not:   It all depends on us having a long weekend.

And:   Can you really imagine his being on time?

Not:   Can your really imagine him being on time?

So, gerunds are commonly used and, contrary to popular opinion, not at all difficult to understand.