7. The participles

The participle is a non-finite form of the verb which has a verbal, adjectival or an adverbial character.

There are two participles in Modern English — Participle I and the Participle II, traditionally called the Present Participle and the Past Participle.

1. Participle’s verbal character is manifested in:

1. tense and voice distinction;

2. Participles of transitive verbs can take a direct object.

Opening the door, he went out on to the terrace.

3. Participle I and II can be modified by an adverb

Leaving the room hurriedly, he ran out.

4. Participle I and II can be modified by an adverb

Leaving the room hurriedly, he ran out.

2. Participle’s adjectival and adverbial character is manifested in its syntactic functions of attribute or adverbial modifier. The tense and voice distinctions of the participle.

	Active	Passive
Indefinite	writing	being written
Perfect	having written	having been writing
Past		written

Participle I Indefinite Active and Passive usually denotes an_ action simultaneous with the action expressed by the finite verb.

Participle I Perfect Active and Passive denotes an action prior to the action expressed by the finite verb.

Participle II expresses an action completed in the past and have no links with an action expressed by the finite verb '

The Grammatical category of Voice points out the doer of the action, if the subject acts by itself or is acted upon.

Participle II of transitive verbs has a passive meaning, e. g. a broken glass, a caged bird.

Participle II of intransitive verbs has no passive meaning; it is used only in compound tense-forms and has no independent function in the sentence unless it belongs to a verb which denotes passing into a new state, e. g. a withered flower, a faded leaf.

Participle I Active is formed by adding the suffix -ing to the stem of the verb, the following spelling rules should be observed:

• if a verb ends in a mute e, the mute e is dropped before the suffix -ing:

to give — giving, to close — closing.

• jf a verb ends in a consonant preceded by a vowel rendering short stressed sound, the final consonant is doubled before adding suffix -ing:

to run — running, to forget —forgetting, to admit—admitting

• a final l is doubled if it is preceded by a vowel letter rendering a short vowel sound, stressed or unstressed:

to expel—expelling, to travel —travelling

• The verbs to die, to lie and to tie form Participle I in the following way: dying, lying, tying

Note: —A final y is not changed before adding the suffix -ing: to comply — complying, to deny — denying.

3. The functions of Participles in the sentence.

• as an attribute.

• as an adverbial modifier:

• as a predicative.

• as part of a complex object.

• as part of a compound verbal predicate.

TEST YOURSELF

1. What does Participle I Indefinite Active and Passive denote?

2. What does Participle I Perfect Active and Passive denote?

3. What does Participle II express?

4. What does the grammatical category of Voice point out?

5. What are the functions of Participles in the sentence?

Exercise 1. Make up Participle II, translate them into Ukrainian language.

a) to repeat, to translate, to study, to answer, to dis­cuss to receive, to ask, to wash, to play, to stop, to decide, to dress, to love, to use, to open, to revise, to finish

b) to read, to take, to do, to begin, to give, to see, to spend, to make, to tell, to leave, to meet, to send, to hear, to find, to know, to put, to wake up

c) to go, to sit, to come, to get to, to be, to think, to speak to

Exercise 2. Translate the word combinations into Ukrainian language.

a closed door, written work, one of the questions dis­cussed, a well-known writer, a well-dressed woman, a well-done translation, a badly-made dress

Exercise3. Translate into Ukrainian, point out Participles, their forms and functions. 1. Everybody looked at the dancing girl. 2. The little plump woman standing at the window is my grandmother. 3. The man playing the piano is Kate's uncle. 4. Entering the room, she turned on the light. 5. Coming to the theatre, she saw that the perform­ance had already begun. 6. Looking out of the win­dow, he saw his mother watering the flowers. 7. Hearing the sounds of music we stopped talking. 8. She went into the room, leaving the door open.

Exercise 4. Make up participle constructions out of the subordinate clauses. 1. All the people who live in this house are stu­dents. 2. The woman who is speaking now is our secretary. 3. The apparatus that stands on the table in the corner of the laboratory is quite new. 4. The young man who helps the professor in his experiments studies at an evening school for labo­ratory workers. 5. People who take books from the library must return them in time. 6. There are many pupils in our class who take part in all kinds of extra-curricular activities.

Exercise 5. Make up participle constructions out of the subordinate clauses. 1. As he now felt more at ease, the man spoke in a louder voice. 2. Since he knew who the man was, Robert was very pleased to have the chance of talking to him. 3. As he thought that it was his brother at the window, Steve decided to open it. 4. As the people were afraid of falling into a ditch in the darkness at any moment, they felt their way about very carefully. 5. Since he needed a shelter for the night, Peter decided to go to the neighbours' house.

Exercise 6. Make up participle constructions with the preposition “when” out of the subordinate clauses .

1. When you speak English, pay attention to the order of words. 2. Be careful when you are crossing a street. 3. When you are leaving the room, don't forget to switch off the light. 4. When you begin to work with the dictionary, don't for­get my instructions. 5. When they were travelling in Central Africa, the explorers met many wild animals. 6. When you are copying English texts, pay attention to the articles. 7. You must have much practice when you are learning to speak a foreign language.

Exercise 7. Translate the sentences with Past Participle into Ukrainian.

1. My sister likes boiled eggs. 2. We stopped before a shut door. 3. Tied to the tree, the goat could not run away. 4. They saw overturned tables and chairs and pieces of broken glass all over the room. 5. This is a church built many years ago. 6. The books written by Dickens give us a realistic picture of the 19th century England. 7. She put a plate of fried fish in front of me. 8. The coat bought last year is too small for me now. 9. Nobody saw the things kept in that box.

Exercise 8. Translate into English and Ukrainian.

Приносящий, принесенный, принося, принеся, переводящий, переведенный, переводя, переведя, давая, написав, читающий, берущий, данный, про­читав, сделанный, пьющий, сказанный, будучи по­терянным, нарисовав, написавший, делая, взятый, взяв, рисуя, выпитый, сделав, идя, пишущий, про­читанный, дав, рисующий, делающий, нарисован­ный, выпив, говорящий, беря, написанный, читая, идущий, дающий, сказав, сидевший, посмотрев, будучи забыт, строящий, строящийся, играя, по­играв, рассказанный, рассказавший, видя, принес­ший, будучи принесенным, построенный, продав.

Exercise 9. Open the brackets, change the Infinitives into Participles in necessary forms.

1. (to translate) by a good specialist, the story preserved all the sparkling humour of the original. 2. (to approve) by the critics, the young au­thor's story was accepted by a thick magazine. 3. (to wait) for some time in the hall, he was invit­ed into the drawing-room. 4. (to wait) in the hall, he thought over the problem he was planning to discuss with the old lady. 5. They reached the oa­sis at last, (to walk) across the endless desert the whole day. 6. (to lie) down on the soft couch, the exhausted child fell asleep at once. 7. She went to work, (to leave) the child with the nurse. 8. (to phone) the agency, he left (to say) he would be back in two hours. 9. (to write) in very bad hand­writing, the letter was difficult to read. 10. (to write) his first book, he could not help worrying about the reaction of the critics. 11. (to spend) twenty years abroad, he was happy to be coming home. 12. (to be) so far away from home, he still felt himself part of the family. 13. She looked at the enormous bunch of roses with a happy smile, never (to give) such a wonderful present. 14. (not to wish) to discuss that difficult and painful prob­lem, he changed the conversation.

Exercise10. Translate into English and Ukrainian. Use Participles in necessary forms. 1. Играя в саду, дети не заметили, что стало темно. 2. Подойдя к двери, он открыл ее. 3. Том подошел к смеющейся девочке. 4. Он положил на стол смятое письмо. 5. Плачущая девочка была голодна. 6. Бабушка смотрела на детей, играю­щих во дворе. 7. Она любит смотреть на играющих детей. 8. Сделав уроки, дети пошли гулять. 9. Лежа на диване, он читал книгу. 10. Принеся свои игрушки в комнату, ребенок начал играть. 11. Прочитав много книг Диккенса, он хорошо знал этого писателя. 12. Мальчик, бегущий мимо дома, вдруг остановился. 13. Будучи очень за­нят, он не сразу услышал меня. 14. Услышав шаги, он поднял голову. 15. Выпив чашку чая, она почувствовала себя лучше.