Present participle

A participle (glossing abbreviation PTCP) is a form of a verb that is used in a sentence to modify a noun, noun phrase, verb, or verb phrase, and plays a role similar to an adjective or adverb. A simpler, but less comprehensive, definition is that it is a verbal adjective. It is one of the types of nonfinite verb forms. Its name comes from the Latin participium, a calque of Greek metochḗ "partaking" or "sharing"; it is so named because the Ancient Greek and Latin participles "share" some of the categories of the adjective or noun (gender, number, case) and some of those of the verb (tense and voice).

Like other parts of the verb, participles can be either active (e.g. breaking) or passive (e.g. broken). Participles are also often associated with certain verbal aspects or tenses. The two types of participle in English are traditionally called the present participle (forms such as writing, singing and raising) and the past participle (forms such as written, sung and raised).

Participles have various uses in a sentence. One common use of a participle is to describe the circumstances surrounding the main verb. For example:

In the above sentence, the participles can be interpreted as equivalent to an adverbial clause of time, namely "after he had drawn his sword", and "when she was sleeping".

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