Learning about participles and their role in English grammar can be challenging.
This article is Grammarflex’s comprehensive breakdown on the participle, which, to put it bluntly, is a linguistic doozy. Take your time because participles are a difficult concept in grammar to grasp, but a worthwhile pursuit nonetheless! Let the lesson marinate, folks.
What are participles in grammar?
Participles are forms of verbs which can function as an adjective by sometimes modifying nouns in sentences. We call them participles because they participate in various parts of speech by being part-verb, part-adjective.
We use participles either as adjectives or to form certain tenses, such as the present continuous, present perfect, and past perfect tense. There are two main types of participles: the present participle and the past participle.
The present and past participle
Verbs ending in -ing, such as hearing, thinking, walking, and talking are what we call present participles.
Hidden, driven, walked, talked, written are all past participles (which can appear identical to the simple past tense). Most past participles end in -ed, though irregular verbs use their own endings.
| Sentence | Participle Type | Tense/Usage |
|---|---|---|
| I am working. | Present participle | Present continuous |
| He had sung there before. | Past participle | Past perfect |
| She seems to have mistaken your intentions. | Past participle | Present perfect |
The first sentence (“I am working”) uses the present participle “working” along with a form of to be (am, is), which constructs the present continuous or progressive tense. This shows the action or events as currently ongoing or in-progress.
The second sentence (“He had sung there before”) is constructed in the past perfect tense. To form the past perfect, we use the past participle of the verb, i.e., sung, along with the auxiliary verb had, in the past tense. We use the past perfect to denote past actions that occurred before another past event.
The third sentence uses the present tense have with the past participle of the verb mistake, mistaken. The combination of have + past participle constructs the present perfect tense, which we use to relay experiences or events from the past that connect to the present.
What’s the past participle?
The past participle is the form of the verb that pairs with auxiliary verbs in the construction of perfect tenses, such as the past perfect, present perfect, and future perfect tenses. We also form the passive voice in grammar with the past participle plus the auxiliary had.
- The formula for the past perfect tense is had + past participle (e.g., had written).
- The past participle form of regular verbs ends in -ed (e.g., worked, talked, laughed, studied), and looks identical to the simple past tense verb conjugation.
- The past participle form of irregular verbs ends in something other than -ed (e.g., bitten, frozen, written).
| Sentence | Tense |
|---|---|
| I had caught ten fish before my dad caught one. | Past perfect |
| They had eaten lunch already, so they weren’t hungry. | Past perfect |
| He had written three books and he was working on another one. | Past perfect |
We write in the past perfect tense to clarify the order in which multiple past actions occurred.
To write in the present perfect tense, we pair the past participle + appropriate form of the auxiliary verb have (in the present tense). See examples of sentences in the present perfect tense:
| Sentence | Tense |
|---|---|
| We have worked as teachers for two years. | Present perfect |
| He has worked as a teacher for two years. | Present perfect |
| They have worked as teachers for two years. | Present perfect |
Learn more about verbs
| Types of verbs & verb tenses | what’s the past tense of …? |
|---|---|
| forms of ‘to be’ | … seek? |
| auxiliary verbs | … teach? |
| present tense | … catch? |
| future tense | … buy? |
| past tense | … read? |
| perfect tense | … draw? |
| transitive vs. intransitive | … drive? |
| participles | … throw? |
| irregular verbs | … lead? |
| modals | … win? |
Worksheet: Participle verb forms
According to the post, what are participles primarily described as?
What is the characteristic ending for a present participle, according to the blog post?
Which of the following is commonly the ending for the past participle form of regular verbs?
The blog post states that the present continuous tense is formed using the present participle along with what?
According to the post, which auxiliary verb is used with the past participle to form the past perfect tense?
In the sentence “I am working,” the word “working” is identified in the post as a .
The blog post uses the sentence “He had sung there before” as an example of the past perfect tense, where “sung” is the .
In the sentence “She seems to have mistaken your intentions,” the word “mistaken” is given as an example of a used with “have” to form the present perfect tense.
Verbs ending in -ing, such as “hearing,” “thinking,” and “walking,” are called participles in the post.
According to the post, the past participle is used to form the perfect tenses, such as the present perfect using “have” or “has,” and the past perfect using .
FAQs
What are participles in grammar?
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How do participles function?
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What are the two main types of participles?
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How do you form the present continuous tense?
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How are perfect tenses formed using participles?
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Yash, D. "What Are Participles? (Present and Past Participles)." Grammarflex, Aug 24, 2025, https://grammarflex.com/whats-a-participle-present-participle-vs-past-participles/.
