Unit IV. Participle II (Past Participle)

Participle II has no tense-forms. It expresses either that the action of the participle precedes the action of the finite form of the verb, or that it is simultaneous to the action of the finite form. In most cases it denotes priority or refers to no particular time.

He is a man loved and admired by everybody.

She took the long forgotten letter out of the bag.

Participle II of most verbs has only one form. If the verb is regular, we add –ed (-d) to the infinitive: work – worked. Participle II of irregular verbs is their “third” form. It should be noted that some irregular verbs have two different forms of Participle II:

awake	- awaked/awoken	mow	- mowed/mown
burn	- burned/burnt	show	- showed/shown
dream	- dreamed/dreamt	spell	- spelled/spelt
hang	- hanged/hung	spill	- spilled/spilt
lean	- leaned/leant	swell	- swelled/swollen
leap	- leaped/leapt	tread	- trodden/trod
learn	- learned/learnt	wake	- waked/woken
light	- lighted/lit

Note also that the form hanged is used when hang means “to kill somebody by trying a rope around their neck”.

Some verbs have different participle forms for verbal and adjectival use. Cf.:

You have drunk too much.	- a drunk/drunken sailor;
He has shaved and washed.	- a clean-shaven man;
The trousers have shrunk.	- shrunken trousers;
The ship has sunk.	- a sunken ship.

The Functions of the Participle II in the Sentence

1. Attribute.

Participle II as an attribute can be used in pre-position and post-position. In pre-position participle II can be used singly or in a phrase. The basic principles determining the use of participle II are the same as those operating with single participle I. However, participle II has its own peculiarities. Note that participle II of intransitive verbs is rarely used in pre-position: *the arrived guests. There are some exceptions. Firstly, participles II of a few words (accumulated, dated, escaped, faded, fallen, retired, swollen, vanished, wilted) can precede nouns they modify: a fallen tree, a retired colonel, wilted flowers. These participles always have an active meaning. Secondly, when participle II of an intransitive verb is modified by an adverb, it can be used in pre-position: the newly arrived guests.

Participle II of many transitive verbs can be used in pre-position. However, participles that refer to an action rather than a state are much less commonly used. Cf.: a damaged car, a broken cup, but *the built plant, *the mentioned book. The use of many participles varies according to the context; they are more common in pre-position when they have permanent reference, or when they are modified by an adverb:

a married man (permanent characteristic),

the newly-born baby,

the above-mentioned writer,

the recently-built plant.

A participial phrase used in pre-position is always detached and has an additional meaning of an adverbial modifier:

Annoyed by his words, she went out of the room (reason).

Participle II in post-position can be used singly:

Money lent is money spent (proverb),

or in a phrase:

They came to a tree broken by the recent storm.

A participial phrase in post-position can also be detached:

His comedies, loved by many people all over the world, have been translated into many languages.

There are a number of participles which are normally used in post-position:

the place visited,

the items taken/left,

the money sent/spent,

the letters received/shown,

all the people involved/questioned,

the grant obtained,

the drawbacks found/discovered.

These participles usually refer to something dynamic, not permanent.