The grammar system of the English language is a real obstacle course that stands between the mythical Perfect English and the beginning linguist. Having successfully overcome the simple present tense, galloping without stumbling along the basics of the article system, climbing to the top of a mountain of prepositions and phrasal verbs, the “cadet” runs into a wall consisting of types and features of English participles. Let's try to dismantle the barrier brick by brick.
The participle as a part of speech
Languages in which the participle stands out as a separate part of speech are a priori considered complex, but also rich - due to the range of meanings expressed. In English, there are two types of participle: Participle 1 (present tense) and Participle 2 (past tense). They have the properties of a verb, adverb and adjective and can act as:
- parts of the verb group andused to build temporal structures Continuous (continued), Perfect (perfect) and Perfect Continuous (continued perfect);
- definitions (separately or as part of a participial phrase);
- circumstances (separately or as part of a participial phrase).
When translating into Russian, verbs, adjectives, participles and participles can be used. By the way, the latter have no grammatical equivalent in English.
Present Participle
The participle 1 is formed from the basic form of the verb by adding the ending -ing to it and expresses the active meaning. The described action is either currently in progress or has not been completed.
Participles 1 in English are used as an integral part of the grammatical construction of continuous tenses, in particular Present, Past and Future Continuous, as well as Perfect Continuous tenses:
- I am reading an article about Particles in English. I am currently reading an article on participles in English.
- I was reading an article yesterday when you called me. I was reading an article yesterday when you called me.
- I will be reading this article at this time tomorrow. I will be reading the article at this time tomorrow.
- I have been reading this article since early morning. I have been reading this article since early morning.
In addition, the present participle is also used to expressan action that occurs simultaneously with the described predicate: Look at the man reading an article. Look at the man reading the article.
Participle 1 and gerund
There is a grammatical phenomenon in English that is superficially identical to participle 1: the gerund is also formed by adding the ending -ing to the verb. However, it is necessary to distinguish between these twin brothers, as they have different components of meaning. Consider examples:
- The man reading a newspaper looks to be intelligent. A man reading a newspaper looks smart.
- Reading is an intellectual way of spending time. Reading is an intellectual pastime.
In the first sentence, the word reading describes the hero of the story, that is, it is functionally similar to an adjective - this is participle 1. In the second example, reading is translated into Russian using a noun - this is a gerund. Thus, the participle expresses the sign of the object, and the gerund names the object or phenomenon.
Past Participle
The participle 2 in English is formed by adding the ending -ed to the main form of regular verbs, and the so-called third form of irregular verbs must be memorized - this is another difficulty in the way of all learners of the language of Foggy Albion. The meaning conveyed by the past participle can be conditionally attributed to the Russian passive.
Uses of the past participle in English include the following:
- Formation of the grammatical group of the perfecttense in the active voice in combination with the auxiliary verb to have and its modifications, for example: I have read an interesting article recently (I recently read an interesting article). Perfect tenses traditionally cause great difficulties for our compatriots who study English, since there is no such grammatical structure in Russian. In particular, the present perfect in the previous example is translated using the past verb, which is puzzling. However, if you think about it and try to analyze the train of thought of a native speaker of the main international language, everything falls into place: the hero of the example literally has an interesting article read - he talks about his state in the present tense, that is, participle 2 actually expresses precisely the passive meaning, as already said.
- The formation of the passive voice of all tenses in combination with the forms of the verb to be: My article has already been read by one million users of this site. My article has already been read by a million users of this site.
- Function of the nominal part of the compound predicate after state verbs (be, look, feel, etc.): He looked depressed. He looked upset.
Functions of participles in a sentence
Participles can serve a wide range of functions in a sentence. They can act as:
Definitions and translated with adjectives: Her smiling face was the most beautiful I have ever seen. Her smiling faceIt was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my life. The broken car made my day awful. A broken car made my day terrible. Participles often come before nouns, but they can also come after, if functionally their meaning is closer to the verb than to the adjective: the problems remaining - the remaining problems, the questions discussed - the issues discussed, etc. If the participial turnover acts as a definition, then it costs after a noun: The man staring at me looked familiar. The man staring at me looked familiar. The article sent yesterday had already been published. The article posted yesterday has already been published
- Circumstances (time, cause, course of action, etc.): Having fun, don't forget about security. When you're having fun, don't forget about safety. Asked, what name they chose for their baby, they answered that they hadn't decided yet. When asked what they would name the baby, they said they hadn't decided yet. Depressed by the situation, he didn't know what to say. He didn't know what to say as he was upset by the situation. It is worth noting that more often such turns are replaced by subordinate clauses, compare, for example, When they were asked… and others.
- Complex object - to English learners these constructs are known as complex object. The present participle is used in such a function after the verbs of perception to express the procedural nature of the action: I saw her reading an article. I saw her read the article. Past participles asdefinitions demonstrate that the object of the sentence is subjected to an action that is expressed by the participle: I heard her name mentioned. I heard her name mentioned. In addition, there is often a construction with the participle 2 have something done, indicating that someone performed an action for you: I had my article well-evaluated yesterday. My article was highly appreciated yesterday.
The participle after the verb to be
It is necessary to distinguish between two functions that participles 1 and 2 can perform in English after the verb to be:
- His appearance is shocking. He has a shocking appearance.
- Make him go away! He is shocking people by his behaviour. Make him leave! He shocks people with his behavior.
In the first sentence, participle 1 functions as an adjective, and in the second it is part of the present continuous tense verb structure.
Loose participle
Approaching this station… my hat fell off (A. P. Chekhov)
Anton Pavlovich in his humorous story parodied a common stylistic mistake in the Russian language - the misuse of participles. In English, as we have already said, such a grammatical phenomenon does not exist, but a similar error occurs and is called "loose participle". We talk about this when the sacrament is associated with the wrong noun: Reading an article, dinner was burnt. Reading the article, dinner burned down. Such proposalsneeds to be rebuilt, for example, Reading an article, I forgot about dinner and burnt it. While reading the article, I forgot about the dinner and burned it.
It is worth noting that in English some prepositions and conjunctions can act as participles, such as considering, including, provided that, etc. Their appearance without reference to the subject is not considered a mistake. The same applies to some set expressions: generally speaking, taking into consideration, etc.
Formation of an independent participial turnover
If the participle has its own subject, we are talking about an independent participial turnover. Such constructions are quite rare in everyday speech and are often introduced using the preposition with. Here are examples of sentences with independent participial phrases:
With so much time spent, this project must succeed! Please note that when translating into Russian, a subordinate clause is used: Since a lot of time has been spent, this project should be a success!
Moscow is the business capital of Russia with Saint-Petersburg being the culture capital. Moscow is the business capital of Russia, and St. Petersburg is the cultural one.
Examples of participles in English can be heard in the speech of native speakers very often, therefore, students should well understand the system, which seems very confusing. In order to be able automatically, without thinking, to produce correct constructions,we advise you to memorize special poems that can be easily found in textbooks and the Internet.
