Participle
Encyclopedia
In linguistics
, a participle is a word that shares some characteristics of both verb
s and adjective
s. It can be used in compound verb tenses
or voices
(periphrasis
), or as a modifier
. A phrase composed of a participle and other words is a participial phrase.
of Greek "partaking" or "sharing", because the Ancient Greek
and Latin
participles share in the properties of the adjective or noun (gender
, number
, and case
) and of the verb (tense
and voice
).
and adjectival participle
can be made. See причастие and деепричастие in Russian grammar
, határozói igenév and melléknévi igenév in Hungarian grammar
, or imiesłów in Polish grammar
. Also many Eskimo languages make such a distinction, see for details e.g. the sophisticated participle system of Sireniki Eskimo.
, for example
s are typically passive in form but active in meaning and
their participles thus take the form but not the meaning of the perfect passive participle. In Latin
:
Compare with a non-deponent equivalent:
English
verbs have two participles:
Examples of participle formation include:
While English past participles, like past tense forms, are sometimes irregular
, all English present participles are regular, being formed with the suffix -ing.
The present participle in English is in the active voice and is used for:
The present participle in English has the same form as the gerund
, 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 may be used in both active and passive voices:forming the passive voice
: The chicken was eaten.
modifying a noun, with active sense: our fallen comrades (= our comrades who have fallen)
modifying a noun, with passive sense: the attached files (= the files that have been attached)
modifying a verb or sentence, with passive sense: Seen from this perspective, the problem presents no easy solution. (= When it is seen from this perspective,....)
As noun-modifiers, participles usually precede the noun (like adjective
s), but in many cases they can or must follow it:
Even irregular past participle verbs often follow the format -en or -ne, as may be seen from above. For examples:
has three participles:
The gerundive is sometimes considered the future passive participle, although it is more of the jussive mood
than the future tense
. It is formed from the present stem + (e)ndus, -a, -um; e.g. educandus "needing to be taught".
Compound participles are possible:
Usage:
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 (for -ar verbos) or -iendo (for both -ir and -er verbs): 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
In the passive voice, accompanied by the verb "ser" (to be) and "por" (by)
To form compound tenses
participle shares in the properties of adjectives and verbs. Like an adjective, it changes form for gender
, case
, and number
. Like a verb, it has tense
and voice
, is modified by adverb
s, and can take verb argument
s, including an object
.
There is a form of the participle for every combination of tense (present, aorist, perfect, future) and voice (active, middle, passive). Here are the masculine nominative singular forms:
Like an adjective, it can modify a noun, and can be used to embed one thought into another.
In the example, the participial phrase τὸν εὖ στρατηγήσοντα, literally "the one going to be a good general," is used to embed the idea εὖ στρατηγήσει "he will be a good general" within the main verb.
The participle is very widely used in ancient Greek, especially in prose.
: imiesłowy). There are four types of imiesłowy in two classes:
Adjectival participle (imiesłów przymiotnikowy)
Adverbial participle (imiesłów przysłówkowy)
Dangling participle
Due to the distinction between adjectival and adverbial participles, in Polish it is practically impossible to make a dangling participle mistake in the classical English meaning of the term. For instance, in the sentence:
"I have found them hiding in the closet."
it is unclear, whether "I" or "them" is hiding in the closet. In Polish there is a clear distinction:
However, participles may cause confusion if used in sentences like this one:
which does not make it clear - in grammatical terms - whether "me" or "my parents" were 8 at the time of "me" being sent to school. The use of the present adverbial participle mając (corresponding to the participle being in the English translation) is considered incorrect, and thus a different structure should be used.
)
Present active: слышащий [ˈslɨ.ʂɐ.ɕɕɪj] "hearing", "who hears"
Present passive: слышимый [ˈslɨ.ʂᵻ.məj] "being heard", "that is heard", "audible"
Past active: слышавший [ˈslɨ.ʂɐf.ʂəj] "who heard", "who was hearing"
Past passive: слышанный [ˈslɨ.ʂɐn.nəj] "that was heard", "that was being heard"
Adverbial
present active: слыша [ˈslɨ.ʂɐ] "(while) hearing"
Adverbial past active: слышав [ˈslɨ.ʂɐf] "having been hearing"
Verb: услышать [ʊˈslɨ.ʂɐtʲ] (to hear, perfective aspect
)
Past active: услышавший [ʊˈslɨ.ʂɐf.ʂəj] "who has heard"
Past passive: услышанный [ʊˈslɨ.ʂɐn.nəj] "that has been heard"
Adverbial past active: услышав [ʊˈslɨ.ʂɐf] "having heard"
Present active: правещ pravešt
Past active aorist: правил pravil
Past active imperfect: правел pravel (only used in verb
al constructions)
Past passive: правен praven
Adverbial present active: правейки pravejki
Verb: направя napravja (to do, perfective aspect)
Past active aorist: направил napravil
Past active imperfect: направел napravel (only used in verb
al constructions)
Past passive: направен napraven
Participles are adjectives formed as verbs
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 forms einąs/einantis ("going, walking", present tense), ėjęs (past tense), eisiąs (future tense), eidavęs (past frequentative tense), the passive participle forms einamas ("being walked", present tense), eitas (“walked“ past tense), eisimas (future tense), the adverbial participles einant ("while [he, different subject] is walking" present tense), ėjus (past tense), eisiant (future tense), eidavus (past frequentative tense), the semi-participle eidamas ("while [he, the same subject] is going, walking") and the participle of necessity eitinas ("that which needs to be walked"). The active, passive and the semi- participles are inflected by gender and the active, passive and necessity ones are inflected by case.
. 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 كتب kataba, the active participle is kaatibun كاتب and the passive participle is maktuubun مكتوب. Roughly these translate to writing and written respectively. However, they have different, derived lexical uses. كاتب kaatibun is further lexicalized as writer, author and مكتوب maktuubun as letter.
In Classical Arabic
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 (i.e.,Ana aakel انا آكل meaning I have eaten, I have just eaten or I have already eaten). Other verbs, such as raaH راح (to go) give a participle (raayeH رايح) which has a progressive (is going...) meaning. The exact tense or continuity of these participles is therefore determined by the nature of the specific verb (especially its lexical aspect and its transitivity
) 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.
Present active: tekevä
Present passive: tehtävä
Past active: tehnyt
Past passive: tehty
Agent participle (passive): tekemä (done by...)
Negative participle: tekemätön
has 6 different participle conjugations; active and passive for past, present and future. This means that Esperanto participles are very precise. The participles are formed as follows:
For example, a falonta botelo is a bottle which will fall. A falanta botelo is one that is falling through the air. After it hits the floor, it is a falinta botelo. These examples use the active participles, but the usage of the passive participles is similar. A cake that is going to be divided is a dividota kuko. When it is in the process of being divided, it is a dividata kuko. Having been cut, it is now a dividita kuko.
These participles can be used in conjunction with the verb to be, esti, forming 18 compound tenses (9 active and 9 passive). However, this soon becomes complicated and often unnecessary, and is only frequently used when rigorous translation of English is required. An example of this would be la knabo estos instruita, or, the boy will have been taught. This example sentence is then in the future anterior.
When the suffix -o is used, instead of -a, then the participle refers to a person. A manĝanto is someone who is eating. A manĝinto is someone who ate. A manĝonto is someone who will eat. Also, a manĝito is someone who was eaten, a manĝato is someone who is being eaten, and a manĝoto is someone who will be eaten.
These rules hold true to all verbs, and there are no exceptions.
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
, a participle is a word that shares some characteristics of both verb
Verb
A verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is a word that in syntax conveys an action , or a state of being . In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive...
s and adjective
Adjective
In grammar, an adjective is a 'describing' word; the main syntactic role of which is to qualify a noun or noun phrase, giving more information about the object signified....
s. It can be used in compound verb tenses
Grammatical tense
A tense is a grammatical category that locates a situation in time, to indicate when the situation takes place.Bernard Comrie, Aspect, 1976:6:...
or voices
Voice (grammar)
In grammar, the voice of a verb describes the relationship between the action that the verb expresses and the participants identified by its arguments . When the subject is the agent or doer of the action, the verb is in the active voice...
(periphrasis
Periphrasis
In linguistics, periphrasis is a device by which a grammatical category or grammatical relationship is expressed by a free morpheme , instead of being shown by inflection or derivation...
), or as a modifier
Grammatical modifier
In grammar, a modifier is an optional element in phrase structure or clause structure; the removal of the modifier typically doesn't affect the grammaticality of the sentence....
. A phrase composed of a participle and other words is a participial phrase.
Etymology
The word comes from Latin participium, a calqueCalque
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.-Calque:...
of Greek "partaking" or "sharing", because the Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...
and Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
participles share in the properties of the adjective or noun (gender
Grammatical gender
Grammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...
, number
Grammatical number
In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
, and case
Grammatical case
In grammar, the case of a noun or pronoun is an inflectional form that indicates its grammatical function in a phrase, clause, or sentence. For example, a pronoun may play the role of subject , of direct object , or of possessor...
) and of the verb (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...
and voice
Voice (grammar)
In grammar, the voice of a verb describes the relationship between the action that the verb expresses and the participants identified by its arguments . When the subject is the agent or doer of the action, the verb is in the active voice...
).
Adverbial and adjectival
In some languages, a distinction between adverbial participleAdverbial participle
Adverbial 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 participles which are derived from verbs and which are used like adjectives. They contrast with verbal participles, which are considered to be forms of verbs rather than adjectives. In English for instance, adjectival participles may appear with modifiers typical of...
can be made. See причастие and деепричастие in Russian grammar
Russian grammar
Russian grammar encompasses:* a highly synthetic morphology* a syntax that, for the literary language, is the conscious fusion of three elements:** a Church Slavonic inheritance;...
, 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 Uralic language spoken in Hungary and in adjacent areas of the seven neighboring countries, parts of which belonged to Hungary before 1920. Hungarian grammar possesses an extremely complex...
, or imiesłów in Polish grammar
Polish grammar
The grammar of the Polish language is characterized by a high degree of inflection, and has relatively free word order, although the dominant arrangement is subject–verb–object . There are no articles, and there is frequent dropping of subject pronouns...
. Also many Eskimo languages make such a distinction, see for details e.g. the sophisticated participle system of Sireniki Eskimo.
Perfect passive
The perfect passive participle is the past participle expressed in the passive voicePassive voice
Passive voice is a grammatical voice common in many of the world's languages. Passive is used in a clause whose subject expresses the theme or patient of the main verb. That is, the subject undergoes an action or has its state changed. A sentence whose theme is marked as grammatical subject is...
, for example
- The dog, having been praised by its master, was happy, or more commonly, The dog, praised by its master, was happy.
Perfect passive of deponent
Deponent verbDeponent verb
In linguistics, a deponent verb is a verb that is active in meaning but takes its form from a different voice, most commonly the middle or passive. A deponent verb doesn't have active forms; it can be said to have deposited them .-Greek:...
s are typically passive in form but active in meaning and
their participles thus take the form but not the meaning of the perfect passive participle. In Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
:
- precatus "having prayed" (from the verb precor, precari, precatus sum)
Compare with a non-deponent equivalent:
- laudatus "having been praised" (from the verb laudo, laudare, laudavi, laudatus)
Modern English
English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
verbs have two participles:
- called variously the present, active, imperfect, or progressive participle, it is identical in form to the gerundGerundIn linguistics* As applied to English, it refers to the usage of a verb as a noun ....
; the term present participle is sometimes used to include the gerund. The term gerund-participle is also used. - called variously the past, passive, or perfect participle, it is usually identical to the verb's preteritePreteriteThe preterite is the grammatical tense expressing actions that took place or were completed in the past...
(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 |
| to hire | hired | hiring | regular | |
| to do | did | done | doing | irregular |
| to say | said | saying | ||
| to eat | ate | eaten | eating | |
| to write | wrote | written | writing | |
| to beat | beat | beaten | beating | |
| to sing | sang | sung | singing | |
| to see | saw | seen | seeing | |
While English past participles, like past tense forms, are sometimes irregular
English irregular verbs
The English language has a large number of irregular verbs. In the great majority of these, the past participle and/or past tense is not formed according to the usual patterns of English regular verbs...
, all English present participles are regular, being formed with the suffix -ing.
The present participle in English is in the active voice and is used for:
- forming the progressive aspect: Jim was sleeping.
- modifying a noun as an adjective: Let sleeping dogs lie. (= Let dogs that are sleeping lie.)
- modifying a verb or sentence in clauses: Broadly speaking, the project was successful.
The present participle in English has the same form as the gerund
Gerund
In linguistics* As applied to English, it refers to the usage of a verb as a noun ....
, 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 may be used in both active and passive voices:
- forming the perfect: The chicken has
Passive voice
Passive voice is a grammatical voice common in many of the world's languages. Passive is used in a clause whose subject expresses the theme or patient of the main verb. That is, the subject undergoes an action or has its state changed. A sentence whose theme is marked as grammatical subject is...
: The chicken was
As noun-modifiers, participles usually precede the noun (like adjective
Adjective
In grammar, an adjective is a 'describing' word; the main syntactic role of which is to qualify a noun or noun phrase, giving more information about the object signified....
s), but in many cases they can or must follow it:
- The visiting dignitaries devoured the baked apples.
- Please bring all the documents required. (= Please bring all the documents that are required.)
- The difficulties encountered were nearly insurmountable. (= The difficulties that were encountered were nearly insurmountable.)
Even irregular past participle verbs often follow the format -en or -ne, as may be seen from above. For examples:
Verb |
Past Participle |
| to beat | beaten |
| to do | done |
| to eat | eaten |
| to fall | fallen |
| to give | given |
| to help | holpen |
| to show | shown |
| to see | seen |
| to write | written |
Old English
- In Old English, weak present participles ended in -ende or -iende depending on verb class. In Middle EnglishMiddle EnglishMiddle English is the stage in the history of the English language during the High and Late Middle Ages, or roughly during the four centuries between the late 11th and the late 15th century....
, 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. - Strong past participles were marked with a ge- prefix, as are most strong and weak past participles in Dutch and High German today.
Latin
LatinLatin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
has three participles:
- present active participle: present stem + -ns (gen. –ntis); e.g. educāns "teaching"
- perfect passive participle: participial stem + -us, -a, -um; e.g. educātus "(having been) taught"
- future active participle: participial stem + -ūrus, -ūra, -ūrum; e.g. educātūrus "about to teach"
The gerundive is sometimes considered the future passive participle, although it is more of the jussive mood
Jussive mood
The jussive is a grammatical mood of verbs for issuing orders, commanding, or exhorting . English verbs are not marked for this mood...
than the future tense
Future tense
In grammar, a 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 .-Expressions of future tense:The concept of the future,...
. It is formed from the present stem + (e)ndus, -a, -um; e.g. educandus "needing to be taught".
| ēdūcō "I educate" | active | passive |
|---|---|---|
| present | ēdūcāns | — |
| perfect | — | ēdūcātus |
| future | ēdūcātūrus | (ēdūcandus) |
French
There are two basic participles:- Present active participle: formed by dropping the -ons of the nous form of a verb(except with être) and then adding 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 "être", 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"
Usage:
- Present participles are used as qualifiers as in "un insecte volant" (a flying insect) and some other contexts. They are never used in forming tenses. The present participle is used in subordinate clauses, usually with en; "Je marche, en parlant".
- Past participles are used as qualifiers for nouns "la table cassée" (the broken table), to form compound tenses such as the perfect "Vous avez dit"(you have said) and to for the passive voice "il a été tué"(he/ it has been killed).
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" or "lover", 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 (for -ar verbos) or -iendo (for both -ir and -er verbs): 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, accompanied by the verb "ser" (to be) and "por" (by)
- Los ladrones fueron capturados por la policia "The thieves were caught by the police."
To form compound tenses
- Ella ha escrito una carta. "She has written a letter."
Ancient Greek
The Ancient GreekAncient Greek
Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...
participle shares in the properties of adjectives and verbs. Like an adjective, it changes form for gender
Grammatical gender
Grammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...
, case
Grammatical case
In grammar, the case of a noun or pronoun is an inflectional form that indicates its grammatical function in a phrase, clause, or sentence. For example, a pronoun may play the role of subject , of direct object , or of possessor...
, and number
Grammatical number
In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
. Like a verb, it has tense
Grammatical tense
A tense is a grammatical category that locates a situation in time, to indicate when the situation takes place.Bernard Comrie, Aspect, 1976:6:...
and voice
Voice (grammar)
In grammar, the voice of a verb describes the relationship between the action that the verb expresses and the participants identified by its arguments . When the subject is the agent or doer of the action, the verb is in the active voice...
, is modified by adverb
Adverb
An adverb is a part of speech that modifies verbs or any part of speech other than a noun . Adverbs can modify verbs, adjectives , clauses, sentences, and other adverbs....
s, and can take verb argument
Verb argument
In linguistics, a verb argument is a phrase that appears in a syntactic relationship with the verb in a clause. In English, for example, the two most important arguments are the subject and the direct object....
s, including an object
Object (grammar)
An object in grammar is part of a sentence, and often part of the predicate. It denotes somebody or something involved in the subject's "performance" of the verb. Basically, it is what or whom the verb is acting upon...
.
There is a form of the participle for every combination of tense (present, aorist, perfect, future) and voice (active, middle, passive). Here are the masculine nominative singular forms:
| λύω "I release" | active | middle | passive |
|---|---|---|---|
| present | λύων | λυόμενος | |
| aorist | λύσας | λυσάμενος | λυθείς |
| future | λύσων | λυσόμενος | λυθησόμενος |
| perfect | λελυκώς | λελυμένος | |
Like an adjective, it can modify a noun, and can be used to embed one thought into another.
- πολλὰ καὶ φύσει καὶ ἐπιστήμῃ δεῖ τὸν εὖ στρατηγήσοντα ἔχειν
"he who intends to be a good general must have a great deal of ability and knowledge,"
In the example, the participial phrase τὸν εὖ στρατηγήσοντα, literally "the one going to be a good general," is used to embed the idea εὖ στρατηγήσει "he will be a good general" within the main verb.
The participle is very widely used in ancient Greek, especially in prose.
Polish
The Polish word for participle is imiesłów (pl.Plural
In linguistics, plurality or [a] plural is a concept of quantity representing a value of more-than-one. Typically applied to nouns, a plural word or marker is used to distinguish a value other than the default quantity of a noun, which is typically one...
: imiesłowy). There are four types of imiesłowy in two classes:
Adjectival participle (imiesłów przymiotnikowy)
- active adjectival participle (imiesłów przymiotnikowy czynny): robiący - "doing", "one who does"
- passive adjectival participle (imiesłów przymiotnikowy bierny): robiony - "being done" (can only be formed off transitiveTransitivity (grammatical category)In linguistics, transitivity is a property of verbs that relates to whether a verb can take direct objects and how many such objects a verb can take...
verbs)
Adverbial participle (imiesłów przysłówkowy)
- present adverbial participle (imiesłów przysłówkowy współczesny): robiąc - "doing", "while doing"
- perfect adverbial participle (imiesłów przysłówkowy uprzedni): zrobiwszy - "having done" (formed in virtually all cases off verbs in their perfective formsPerfective aspectThe perfective aspect , sometimes called the aoristic aspect, is a grammatical aspect used to describe a situation viewed as a simple whole, whether that situation occurs in the past, present, or future. The perfective aspect is equivalent to the aspectual component of past perfective forms...
, here denoted by the prefixPrefixA prefix is an affix which is placed before the root of a word. Particularly in the study of languages,a prefix is also called a preformative, because it alters the form of the words to which it is affixed.Examples of prefixes:...
z-)
Dangling participle
Due to the distinction between adjectival and adverbial participles, in Polish it is practically impossible to make a dangling participle mistake in the classical English meaning of the term. For instance, in the sentence:
"I have found them hiding in the closet."
it is unclear, whether "I" or "them" is hiding in the closet. In Polish there is a clear distinction:
- "Znalazłem ich, chowając się w szafie." - chowając is a present adverbial participle regarding the subject ("I")
- "Znalazłem ich chowających się w szafie" - chowających is an active adjectival participle regarding the object ("them")
However, participles may cause confusion if used in sentences like this one:
- "Mając 8 lat, rodzice posłali mnie do szkoły" - "Being 8 years old my parents sent me to school"
which does not make it clear - in grammatical terms - whether "me" or "my parents" were 8 at the time of "me" being sent to school. The use of the present adverbial participle mając (corresponding to the participle being in the English translation) is considered incorrect, and thus a different structure should be used.
Russian
Verb: слышать [ˈslɨ.ʂɐtʲ] (to hear, imperfective aspectImperfective aspect
The imperfective is a grammatical aspect used to describe a situation viewed with internal structure, such as ongoing, habitual, repeated, and similar semantic roles, whether that situation occurs in the past, present, or future...
)
Present active: слышащий [ˈslɨ.ʂɐ.ɕɕɪj] "hearing", "who hears"
Present passive: слышимый [ˈslɨ.ʂᵻ.məj] "being heard", "that is heard", "audible"
Past active: слышавший [ˈslɨ.ʂɐf.ʂəj] "who heard", "who was hearing"
Past passive: слышанный [ˈslɨ.ʂɐn.nəj] "that was heard", "that was being heard"
Adverbial
Adverbial participle
Adverbial 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: слыша [ˈslɨ.ʂɐ] "(while) hearing"
Adverbial past active: слышав [ˈslɨ.ʂɐf] "having been hearing"
Verb: услышать [ʊˈslɨ.ʂɐtʲ] (to hear, perfective aspect
Perfective aspect
The perfective aspect , sometimes called the aoristic aspect, is a grammatical aspect used to describe a situation viewed as a simple whole, whether that situation occurs in the past, present, or future. The perfective aspect is equivalent to the aspectual component of past perfective forms...
)
Past active: услышавший [ʊˈslɨ.ʂɐf.ʂəj] "who has heard"
Past passive: услышанный [ʊˈslɨ.ʂɐn.nəj] "that has been heard"
Adverbial past active: услышав [ʊˈslɨ.ʂɐf] "having heard"
Bulgarian
Verb: правя pravja (to do, imperfective aspect)Present active: правещ pravešt
Past active aorist: правил pravil
Past active imperfect: правел pravel (only used in verb
Verb
A verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is a word that in syntax conveys an action , or a state of being . In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive...
al constructions)
Past passive: правен praven
Adverbial present active: правейки pravejki
Verb: направя napravja (to do, perfective aspect)
Past active aorist: направил napravil
Past active imperfect: направел napravel (only used in verb
Verb
A verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is a word that in syntax conveys an action , or a state of being . In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive...
al constructions)
Past passive: направен napraven
Participles are adjectives formed as verbs
Lithuanian
Among Indo-European languages, the Lithuanian languageLithuanian language
Lithuanian is the official state language of Lithuania and is recognized 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. Lithuanian is a Baltic language, closely related to Latvian, although they...
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 forms einąs/einantis ("going, walking", present tense), ėjęs (past tense), eisiąs (future tense), eidavęs (past frequentative tense), the passive participle forms einamas ("being walked", present tense), eitas (“walked“ past tense), eisimas (future tense), the adverbial participles einant ("while [he, different subject] is walking" present tense), ėjus (past tense), eisiant (future tense), eidavus (past frequentative tense), the semi-participle eidamas ("while [he, the same subject] is going, walking") and the participle of necessity eitinas ("that which needs to be walked"). The active, passive and the semi- participles are inflected by gender and the active, passive and necessity ones are inflected by case.
Arabic
The Arabic verb has two participles: an active participle (اسم الفاعل) and a passive participle (اسم المفعول ), and the form of the participle is predictable by inspection of the dictionary form of the verb. 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 ArabicVarieties of Arabic
The Arabic language is a Semitic language characterized by a wide number of linguistic varieties within its five regional forms. The largest divisions occur between the spoken languages of different regions. The Arabic of North Africa, for example, is often incomprehensible to an Arabic speaker...
. 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 كتب kataba, the active participle is kaatibun كاتب and the passive participle is maktuubun مكتوب. Roughly these translate to writing and written respectively. However, they have different, derived lexical uses. كاتب kaatibun is further lexicalized as writer, author and مكتوب 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 and Abbasid times . It is based on the Medieval dialects of Arab tribes...
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
Verb framing
In linguistics, verb-framing and satellite-framing are typological descriptions of how verb phrases in different languages describe the path of motion or the manner of motion, respectively....
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
Levant
The Levant or ) is the geographic region and culture zone of the "eastern Mediterranean littoral between Anatolia and Egypt" . The Levant includes most of modern Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, the Palestinian territories, and sometimes parts of Turkey and Iraq, and corresponds roughly to the...
, 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 (i.e.,Ana aakel انا آكل meaning I have eaten, I have just eaten or I have already eaten). Other verbs, such as raaH راح (to go) give a participle (raayeH رايح) which has a progressive (is going...) meaning. The exact tense or continuity of these participles is therefore determined by the nature of the specific verb (especially its lexical aspect and its transitivity
Transitivity
-In grammar:* Intransitive verb* Transitive verb, when a verb takes an object* Transitivity -In logic and mathematics:* Arc-transitive graph* Edge-transitive graph* Ergodic theory, a group action that is metrically transitive* Vertex-transitive graph...
) 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
Passive voice
Passive voice is a grammatical voice common in many of the world's languages. Passive is used in a clause whose subject expresses the theme or patient of the main verb. That is, the subject undergoes an action or has its state changed. A sentence whose theme is marked as grammatical subject is...
, but more often than not, are used in their various lexicalized senses as adjectives or nouns.
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
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).Esperanto
EsperantoEsperanto
is the most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Its name derives from Doktoro Esperanto , the pseudonym under which L. L. Zamenhof published the first book detailing Esperanto, the Unua Libro, in 1887...
has 6 different participle conjugations; active and passive for past, present and future. This means that Esperanto participles are very precise. The participles are formed as follows:
| Past | Present | Future | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Active | -int- | -ant- | -ont- |
| Passive | -it- | -at- | -ot- |
For example, a falonta botelo is a bottle which will fall. A falanta botelo is one that is falling through the air. After it hits the floor, it is a falinta botelo. These examples use the active participles, but the usage of the passive participles is similar. A cake that is going to be divided is a dividota kuko. When it is in the process of being divided, it is a dividata kuko. Having been cut, it is now a dividita kuko.
These participles can be used in conjunction with the verb to be, esti, forming 18 compound tenses (9 active and 9 passive). However, this soon becomes complicated and often unnecessary, and is only frequently used when rigorous translation of English is required. An example of this would be la knabo estos instruita, or, the boy will have been taught. This example sentence is then in the future anterior.
When the suffix -o is used, instead of -a, then the participle refers to a person. A manĝanto is someone who is eating. A manĝinto is someone who ate. A manĝonto is someone who will eat. Also, a manĝito is someone who was eaten, a manĝato is someone who is being eaten, and a manĝoto is someone who will be eaten.
These rules hold true to all verbs, and there are no exceptions.
See also
- GrammarGrammarIn linguistics, grammar is the set of structural rules that govern the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology, syntax, and phonology, often complemented by phonetics, semantics,...
- Hanging participle
- Non-finite verbNon-finite verbIn linguistics, a non-finite verb is a verb form that is not limited by a subject and, more generally, is not fully inflected by categories that are marked inflectionally in language, such as tense, aspect, mood, number, gender, and person...
- Adjectival participleAdjectival participleAdjectival participles are participles which are derived from verbs and which are used like adjectives. They contrast with verbal participles, which are considered to be forms of verbs rather than adjectives. In English for instance, adjectival participles may appear with modifiers typical of...
- Adverbial participleAdverbial participleAdverbial 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...
- GerundGerundIn linguistics* As applied to English, it refers to the usage of a verb as a noun ....
- Attributive verbAttributive verbIn grammar, an attributive verb is a verb which modifies a noun as an attributive, rather than expressing an independent idea as a predicate....