GRAMMAR & STRUCTURE
Participles

Definition

A participle is the -ing or -ed form of a verb.

Example

Infinitive	Simple Form	Participle	Past Participle
to be	be	being	been
to go	go	going	gone
to do	do	doing	done

Explanation

Participles have many functions, for example:

• They are part of the continuous verb forms.
• They are often used as adjectives.
• They are sometimes used as adverbs.
• They are used in adverb and adjective phrases.
• They are called gerunds when used as nouns.
• Certain participles can be used to describe how people feel or the causes of those feelings, for example: interested / interesting, excited / exciting, bored / boring, confused / confusing, etc.

Related Sections

Reported Speech
Gerunds