Look at these examples to see how participle clauses are used.
Looked after carefully, these boots will last for many years.
Not wanting to hurt his feelings, I avoided the question.
Having lived through difficult times together, they were very close friends.
Try this exercise to test your grammar.
- Grammar test 1
Read the explanation to learn more.
Grammar explanation
Participle clauses enable us to say information in a more economical way. They are formed using present participles (going, reading, seeing, walking, etc.), past participles (gone, read, seen, walked, etc.) or perfect participles (having gone, having read, having seen, having walked, etc.).
We can use participle clauses when the participle and the verb in the main clause have the same subject. For example,
Waiting for Ellie, I made some tea. (While I was waiting for Ellie, I made some tea.)
Participle clauses do not have a specific tense. The tense is indicated by the verb in the main clause.
Participle clauses are mainly used in written texts, particularly in a literary, academic or journalistic style.
Present participle clauses
Here are some common ways we use present participle clauses. Note that present participles have a similar meaning to active verbs.
- To give the result of an action
The bomb exploded, destroying the building. - To give the reason for an action
Knowing she loved reading, Richard bought her a book. - To talk about an action that happened at the same time as another action
Standing in the queue, I realised I didn't have any money. - To add information about the subject of the main clause
Starting in the new year, the new policy bans cars in the city centre.
Past participle clauses
Here are some common ways that we use past participle clauses. Note that past participles normally have a passive meaning.
- With a similar meaning to an if condition
Used in this way, participles can make your writing more concise. (If you use participles in this way, … ) - To give the reason for an action
Worried by the news, she called the hospital. - To add information about the subject of the main clause
Filled with pride, he walked towards the stage.
Perfect participle clauses
Perfect participle clauses show that the action they describe was finished before the action in the main clause. Perfect participles can be structured to make an active or passive meaning.
Having got dressed, he slowly went downstairs.
Having finished their training, they will be fully qualified doctors.
Having been made redundant, she started looking for a new job.
Participle clauses after conjunctions and prepositions
It is also common for participle clauses, especially with -ing, to follow conjunctions and prepositions such as before, after, instead of, on, since, when, while and in spite of.
Before cooking, you should wash your hands.
Instead of complaining about it, they should try doing something positive.
On arriving at the hotel, he went to get changed.
While packing her things, she thought about the last two years.
In spite of having read the instructions twice, I still couldn’t understand how to use it.
Do this exercise to test your grammar again.
- Grammar test 2
Hello Kaisoo93,
Yes, the second sentence is fine.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello crow,
This site is aimed at helping people improve their English by providing explanations and practice. We don't offer a correction or proofreading service, however.
If you have a questions about how English works or about something you don't understand then we'll be happy to try to help.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello John Mccan
As far as I know, when 'get' and 'have' are used in causative structures such as these, the verb forms (here 'resolved' and 'watched') are past participles, not adjectives. This is because they have a passive meaning, being another way of saying something like 'I want it to be resolved' (following your example).
In the structure with 'make', an adjective, noun or infinitive can come after the object. So in this case, 'complicated' is an adjective.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Kaisoo93,
We use 'dressed' with a passive meaning, so 'Sam who is dressing' or 'Dressing in a suit...' are not correct here.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Kaisoo93,
The reason is that the verbs 'shout' and 'dress' operate in different ways in English.
We do not use the verb 'dress' actively to talk about the subject in modern English. Thus, a sentence using 'dress' must have a different object to the subject, or be used in a passive form so the subject can be omitted:
Alternatively, you can use a reflexive pronoun to create an object for the verb, though this is rather unusual and can sound rather archaic:
Since the participle in a participle phrase must relate to the same subject as the main clause, we cannot use it with an active meaning.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello MartaC,
The danger with having the participle too far from its referent is that the sentence may be ambiguous or confusing for the reader. I don't see any problem with your sentence. In fact, bring the participle phrase to the beginning like this is quite a common literary device to highlight certain details in the sentence.
Your second version is also correct, though it seems a less elegant structure to me. It's really a question of personal style and taste, though.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Kaisoo93,
I would say that the participle causing has an adjectival function here. It's hard to reformulate the sentence to create an adverbial clause (see here for a list of adverbial clause types).
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Kaisoo93,
The first sentence is not correct as the verb 'cause' lacks an appropriate subject.
The second sentence is fine. The verb (cause) is plural, so it is clear that the relative pronoun refers back to embers rather than to wind.
The original sentence (with causing) is by far the best choice in terms of style, clarity and elegance.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Kaisoo93,
The sentence structure does not hold together in that way. The sentence 'with', everything describes the object (of the preposition) 'embers'; you cannot change that object into a subject for a new verb without starting a new sentence:
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello John Mccan,
In both examples, I would say that the -ing form is a participle.
In the first example, 'singing' is a participle with an adjectival function. It describes the pronoun 'him'. The way the sentence is constructed tells us this, as the object is the pronoun. In other words, you hear the person who is singing, not the singing which belongs to the person. In the latter case, you would say 'I heard his singing'.
In the second example, the construction is get + participle. You can use present and past participles in this construction, where present participles have an active meaning and past participles have a passive meaning. The verb 'get' here has a meaning between 'start' and 'become', depending on the context:
As an aside, the participle/gerund distinction is really a false one in English, and is a relict of a neo-classical view of English which imposed Latin forms and terms on it in an inappropriate way. Modern English views of grammar prefer the term -ing form, which avoids trying to create two items from one. Instead, we treat the -ing form as a single item with a range of uses.
You can find a nice summary of this on this page:
https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/participles-and-gerunds
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello John Mccan,
In both sentences going is a present participle, in my view.
As I mentioned previously, most modern grammars of English use the term -ing form rather than trying to impose a participle/gerund distinction. I think getting distracted by such labelling is not going to help you to improve your English.
The pattern get + ing is an example of patter 5a on this page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerund#cite_note-26
As you can see, the entry highlights the debateable nature of the form:
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello again,
I don't know of any reason why using possessive forms after verbs of perception would be incorrect. It is certainly less common. The possessive changes the meaning, as I explained in my earlier comment:
I heard him singing - I heard him at a time when he was singing
I heard his singing - I heard the singing which he produces
The verb 'watch' is often followed by a bare infinitive:
It does not give us any information about whether the act (painting or cooking in these examples) is complete or not. If you use a continuous form ('was watching') then it implies that the act of watching was incomplete or interrupted in some way, not the act that was being watched - though that may be a logical conclusion, if the watching was cut short.
I'm afraid I'm not sure I follow your third question. Perhaps you can provide an example to clarify.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Sunny0713,
Remember that the participle must refer to the subject of the sentence. Here, the subject is 'two men', so we need a passive meanings, which means we need a past participle:
You can include a conjunction:
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Tim
You're right -- participle clauses can also be used to modify noun phrases, which makes them adjectival rather than adverbial in such a case.
We are currently revising this whole grammar section and this is one of the pages that hasn't yet been finished. Within a month or two, this page will have a new and improved explanation, as well as a couple of new exercises.
Sorry for any confusion.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello SUCHIT35,
'Using' here is a participle, not a preposition or a gerund. However, the sentence is not correctly constructed in several areas and would need to be rewritten:
We try to answer questions posted as quickly as we are able, though we are a small team here at LearnEnglish. Please do not post the same question multiple times as it only slows down the process.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello John Mccan
Re: 1, I'd say that 'walking' in 'a walking stick' is a gerund, i.e. 'walking stick' is a compound noun or noun + noun construction where the first noun has an adjectival function. I suppose you could also argue that 'walking' is an adjective, but 'walking stick' is such a common collocation that I see it more as a noun with an adjectival function.
Re: 2, 'boring' is an adjective. There are many adjectives that can be followed by infinitives -- please see the Adjectives with to-infinitives section on our Infinitives page.
Please note that we respond to user comments as we can and at our own discretion. If a comment of yours goes unanswered for more than a week, it could be that we've missed it and you are welcome to ask us about it. Otherwise, please just be patient.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello sumanasc
I'd suggest you have a look at the Adverbials section of our Grammar reference. As you can see there, a prepositional phrase (such as 'with his eyes wide open') is a kind of adverbial.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello sumanasc,
The sentence is not correct. I'm not entirely sure what you are trying to say, and there are several issues with word selection, but in terms of grammar you have a relative (adjective) clause beginning with 'which' and this clause describes the noun preceding it. In other words, in your sentence it is 'the harbour' which has taken a long time at sea.
Perhaps you mean this:
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Kali12,
The actions here are simply a sequence. A participle clause would imply either that they happen simultaneously, as you say, which is not the case, or that there is some kind of link between them, such as one action causing the other or one action only being possible after another. In this case, your correction is the best option.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Kali12,
There is a problem with the sentence, but it is not grammatical. The participle clause here would explain the reason for an action. In other words, it would tell us why he runs into danger. Thus, the sentence can be expressed like this:
This seems to me to get the cause-effect relationship backwards. It is not, I imagine, that he runs into danger because he has to fight to stay alive, but rather than he has to fight to stay alive because he runs into danger.
The best way to express the idea would be with a simple conjunction, as you suggest:
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello slopedasian,
In your sentence 'recommended by my teacher last week' is a reduced relative clause which describes the noun 'book'. It has an adjectival function.
The action in a participle clause must refer to the same subject as the main clause, and that is not the case here (the teacher, not 'I', is the person who did the recommending).
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello antopuglia
People do indeed use participle clauses in this way -- the sentences you suggest are fine -- but most writers and editors try to avoid them, especially when they are ambiguous or otherwise confusing. It's also important to note that these forms are fairly formal and so quite unusual in everyday use.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team