All About Participles

Wheezing, I climbed to the top of the pyramid to gaze back out at the sprawling jungle. My friend Jamie, gasping behind me the whole climb up, reached the platform and stood next to me. The two of us stood there, looking out, thinking about all we’d been through as friends, wondering about our future.

Ah, the experiences of friendship. Beautiful, right? Also, in a grammatical sense, that example is rich with participles and participial phrases.

What Are Participles?

Participles are verbals that modify nouns and therefore function as adjectives. The term verbal means that participles express an action to describe the noun, rather than provide the noun’s verb. 

• Regular subject and verb: My grandma ate cheese.
• Subject, verb, participle: My shivering grandma ate cheese.
• Subject, verb, participle: My grandma, shivering, ate cheese.

There are two types of participles: present participles and past participles. Present participles end in -ing, while past participles end in -ed, -d, -en, -n, -t, or -n. The participle functions as a verbal adjective and not as a verb. When you use a participle, you still need a regular verb for your sentence’s subject.

• Correct: The basketball team, defeated, hung their heads low.
• Correct: My mom, torn about which way to turn, stalled at the crossroads.
• Correct: The confused and panicking burglar jumped out the window.
• Correct: My half-eaten donut sat on the floor.
• Incorrect (lacks verb): My half-eaten donut.

Participial phrases serve as a whole-phrase equivalent of participles, building around a participle and adding in nouns, noun phrases, and/or prepositions to modify a subject, providing a description, an object, an object phrase, or a complementary action.

Participle

Participle phrase

Subject or object being modified

• Taking off from the runway, the plane reached 170 miles per hour.

The prepositional phrase from the runway modifies the verb taking off to complete the participial phrase.

• The music, echoing beautifully off the bathroom walls, reached my ears.

The adverb beautifully and preposition phrase off the bathroom walls modify the verb echoing, completing the participial phrase.

• I looked across the room and saw Tony, dancing.

The verbal dancing acts as a participle for the object Tony.

• Spongebob and Patrick are best friends, laughing and getting into ridiculous situations.

The present participles laughing and getting into begin the participial phrase, with the prepositional phrase into ridiculous situations completing the participial phrase.

• Exhausted but laughing after a long day, my family stopped for dinner.

The past participle exhausted mixes with the present participle laughing, before the preposition after, making this a prepositional and participial phrase that modifies the subject my family.

Where to Place Participles

Participles and participial phrases should be placed as close as possible to the noun they modify, to avoid confusion. If a participle gets placed too close to a different noun, the reader might become confused about which noun the participle modifies. Usually, the participle phrase can be inserted right before, right after, or within a few words of the noun it modifies.

• Clear placement: Exhausted and tired from the game, I went to the locker room with my team.
• Incorrect: I went to the locker room with my team, exhausted and tired from the game. (With the participial phrase placed after team instead of I, it becomes unclear which noun the participial phrase modifies.)

Make sure that the sentence mentions the modified noun, either directly or as a pronoun, when you modify it with a participle phrase. 

• Correct: Feeling prepared after studying, I thought the test was easy.
• No clear noun modified: Feeling prepared after studying, the test was easy.

The second example demonstrates a dangling modifier error, where the participle or participial phrase doesn’t have a clearly connected noun in the sentence. In dangling modifiers, the participial phrase confuses the reader and can seem out of place without a clearly linked noun. To maximize clarity, make sure you mention the noun being modified by the participial phrase, and aim to place the participial phrase as close as possible to the noun it modifies. 

Punctuating Participles

If the participle or participial phrase begins the sentence, a comma should follow it, separating it from the core sentence. Otherwise, the sentence gets jumbled together in a confusing way.

• Correct: Half-eaten, the donut sat forsaken on the table.
• Incorrect: Half-eaten the donut sat forsaken on the table. (Without a comma after the participial phrase, it becomes difficult to identify the participial phrase.)

If the participle or participial phrase gets placed in the middle of the sentence, add commas on both sides of the phrase, if the phrase is non-essential to the noun’s identity. If the participial phrase plays a critical role in the noun’s identity, do not use a comma.

• Correct: My mother and sister, wondering if I made it okay, called me after my long flight.
• Incorrect: My mother and sister wondering if I made it okay called me after my long flight. (Without the commas surrounding this unnecessary participial phrase, this sentence becomes too jumbled together.)
• Correct: That woman wearing the green shirt is my mom. (Since wearing the green shirt is an essential part of the noun, it does not get separated by commas.)

If the participial phrase or participle comes at the end of a sentence, use a comma if the modified noun does not directly precede the participle. If the modified noun comes right before the participle or participial phrase, it does not require a comma.

• Correct: My sister played basketball, dribbling up and down the court.
• Incorrect: My sister played basketball dribbling up and down the court. (Lack of comma before the participial phrase makes the reader confused about which noun the participial phrase modifies.)
• Correct: I watched the game to see my sister dribbling up and down the court. (No comma needed, since the modified noun directly precedes its participial phrase.)

Key Points

1. A participle is a verbal, ending with -ing for present tense and -ed, -d, -en, -n, -t, or -n for past tense, that describes a noun and functions like an adjective.
2. A participial phrase functions just like a participle, but adds prepositions, nouns, or noun phrases to the participle.
3. Always place the participle (or phrase) as close as possible to the noun it modifies, making sure to mention the modified noun in the same sentence.
4. Use commas to separate your participial phrase if:
   1. It begins your sentence.
   2. It comes in the middle of your sentence and is non-essential to the noun’s identity.
   3. It ends your sentence and the modified noun does not directly precede it.

Participles and participial phrases can serve you well in your writing, allowing you to create sentence variety, add dynamic description to your characters, and illustrate a wide range of actions on behalf of your subjects. If you ever feel confused about participles and participial phrases, consult the guide and key points above. Keep writing, and always seek out new ways to add complexity and clarity to your writing – the two are not mutually exclusive!