What Are Past Participles? (with Examples)

A past participle is a word that (1) is formed from a

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Let’s look at the verb to whisper:

• Here’s the past participle: whispered
• Here it is used as an adjective: The whispered word
• Here it is used to form a verb tense: She had whispered him the answer.

There are two types of

• The Past Participle

(Past participles usually end with “-ed,” “-d,” “-t,” “-en,” or “-n.”)

• The Present Participle

(All present participles end with “-ing.”)

Participles are

Examples of Past Participles Being Used As Adjectives

Here are some examples of past participles being used as adjectives:

The VerbThe Past Participle

To swellswollen eyes

To breakbroken plate

To ruinruined cake

More Examples of Past Participles Used as Adjectives

Here are some more examples of past participles (shaded) being used as adjectives:

• Here is a

  laminated

  copy to replace your

  torn

  one.

• Stuffed

  deer heads on walls are bad enough, but it’s worse when they have streamers in their antlers because then you know they were enjoying themselves when they were shot. (TV host Ellen DeGeneres)

• A

  torn

  jacket is soon mended, but hard words bruise the heart of a child. (Poet Henry Longfellow)

• Scandal is gossip

  made

  tedious by morality. (Poet Oscar Wilde)

• The enemy is anybody who’s going to get you

  killed

  , no matter which side he’s on. (Author Joseph Heller)

Past Participles in Participle Phrases

Past participles can often be found in

• The boy

  taken to hospital

  has recovered.

(The participle phrase “taken to hospital” describes “the boy.”)

• I have a heart

  wracked with sorrow

  .

(The participle phrase “wracked with sorrow” describes “a heart.”)

• Battered by the wind

  , John fell to his knees.

(The participle phrase “”Battered by the wind” describes “john.”)

• Finally broken

  , Lee lowered his gloves.

(The participle phrase “Finally broken” describes “Lee.”)

Read more about participle phrases.

Past Participles Used in Verb Tenses

As well as being used as adjectives, past participles are also used to form

More Examples of Past Participles Used in Verb Tenses

In these examples, the past participles are shaded.

• I had

  crossed

  the line. I was free, but there was no one to welcome me to the land of freedom. I was a stranger in a strange land. (Political activist Harriet Tubman)

• I had

  seen

  birth and death but had

  thought

  they were different. (Poet T S Eliot)

• I phoned my dad to tell him I had

  stopped

  smoking. He called me a quitter.

• Don’t take the wrong side of an argument just because your opponent has

  taken

  the right side.

• Poets have

  been

  mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese.

• Like all great travellers, I have

  seen

  more than I remember, and remember more than I have

  seen

  . (British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli)

• I have

  taken

  more out of alcohol than alcohol has

  taken

  out of me.

• By September, Jenny will have

  taken

  over that role.

• I hope that, when I leave this planet, I will have

  touched

  a few people in a positive way. (Actor Will Rothhaar)

Forming the Past Participle (Regular Verbs)

If it’s a past participle is the same as the

Add “ed” to most verbs:

• jump > jumped
• paint > painted

If a verb of one syllable ends [consonant-vowel-consonant], double the final consonant and add “ed”:

• chat > chatted
• stop > stopped

If the final consonant is “w,” “x,” or “y,” don’t double it:

• sew > sewed
• play > played
• fix > fixed

If last syllable of a longer verb is stressed and ends [consonant-vowel-consonant], double the last consonant and add “ed”:

• incur > incurred
• prefer > preferred

If the first syllable of a longer verb is stressed and the verb ends [consonant-vowel-consonant], just add “ed”:

• open > opened
• enter > entered
• swallow > swallowed

If the verb ends “e,” just add “d”:

• thrive > thrived
• guzzle > guzzled

If the verb ends [consonant + “y”], change the “y” to an “i” and add “ed”:

• cry > cried
• fry > fried

Forming the Past Participle (Irregular Verbs)

If it’s an past participle is formed in all sorts of different ways. Here are some examples:

• arise > arisen
• catch > caught
• choose > chosen
• know > known

You just have to learn them.

Read more about irregular verbs (includes a list of the most common irregular verbs).

Why Should I Care about Past Participles?

If you’re learning or teaching English, then it is essential to have a good understanding of participles (past participles and present participles) because adjectives and verb tenses are fundamental building blocks when learning a language…any language.

As a rule, native speakers are good at using participles, i.e., they do not cause too many writing errors. However, the same cannot be said for

It’s not all bad news with participle phrases. They also offer a benefit.

Here are two good reasons to think a little more about past participles (specifically, past participles in participle phrases). Let’s start with the benefit.

(Benefit 1) Use a fronted participle phrase to say two things about your subject efficiently.

Participles can be used to create a sentence structure that allows you to say two or more things about your subject efficiently. For example:

• Imbued with both common sense and enthusiasm

  , Patrick is always quick to find a cost-effective solution.

(This example features a past participle (bold) in a participle phrase (shaded).)

This structure is particularly useful when writing staff appraisals. It allows the writer to shoehorn in an extra observation about the subject in a single sentence.

Read more about the benefits of using participles on the “non-finite verbs” page.

(Trap 1) Beware misplaced modifiers and dangling modifiers!

When using the sentence structure in “Benefit 1,” writers must be careful not to write an ambiguous sentence by failing to put the participle phrase next to the word it’s modifying. For example:

• Imbued with both common sense and enthusiasm

  , senior managers routinely praise Patrick for his ability to find a cost-effective solution.

(In this example, the participle phrase (shaded) could be modifying “senior managers” instead of “Patrick.” This is called a misplaced modifier.)

A misplaced modifier makes your sentence ambiguous or wrong. You can avoid a misplaced modifier by placing your modifier next to whatever it’s modifying. Let’s fix the example.

• Imbued with both common sense and enthusiasm

  , Patrick routinely receives praise from senior managers for his ability to find a cost-effective solution.

(The participle phrase is now next to “Patrick.” The ambiguity has gone.)

Occasionally, writers create a mistake known as a

• Imbued with both common sense and enthusiasm

  , senior managers routinely offer praise for his ability to find a cost-effective solution.

(In this example, the participle phrase (shaded) has nothing to modify. “Patrick” isn’t even mentioned. This is called a dangling modifier.)

Read more about misplaced modifiers.
Read more about dangling modifiers.

Key Points

• Past and present participles are key building blocks in any language.
• Using an upfront participle phrase lets you shoehorn more information into a sentence.
• If you use an upfront participle phrase, put the word being modified next.

A Video Summary

Here is a video summarizing this lesson past participles.

A past participle is a word that (1) is formed from a verb , (2) is used as an adjective or to form verb tense , and (3) probably ends with “-ed,” “-d,” “-t,” “-en,” or “-n.” For example:Let’s look at the verbThere are two types of participles Participles are non-finite verbs . (A non-finite verb is a verb that, by itself, does not show tense. This means if you look at just a participle, you cannot tell if you’re dealing with the past tense present tense , or future tense .)Here are some examples of past participles being used as adjectives:Here are some more examples of past participles (shaded) being used as adjectives:Past participles can often be found in participle phrases . A participle phrase acts like an adjective. In the examples below, the participle phrases are shaded and the past participles are in bold:As well as being used as adjectives, past participles are also used to form verb tenses . Here are the verb tenses (past participles shaded):In these examples, the past participles are shaded.If it’s a regular verb , theis the same as the simple past tense . In other words, it is formed like this:Add “ed” to most verbs:If a verb of one syllable ends [consonant-vowel-consonant], double the final consonant and add “ed”:If the final consonant is “w,” “x,” or “y,” don’t double it:If last syllable of a longer verb is stressed and ends [consonant-vowel-consonant], double the last consonant and add “ed”:If the first syllable of a longer verb is stressed and the verb ends [consonant-vowel-consonant], just add “ed”:If the verb ends “e,” just add “d”:If the verb ends [consonant + “y”], change the “y” to an “i” and add “ed”:If it’s an irregular verb , theis formed in all sorts of different ways. Here are some examples:You just have to learn them.If you’re learning or teaching English, then it is essential to have a good understanding of participles (past participles and present participles) because adjectives and verb tenses are fundamental building blocks when learning a language…any language.As a rule, native speakers are good at using participles, i.e., they do not cause too many writing errors. However, the same cannot be said for participle phrases , which are responsible for a reasonably common error called a misplaced modifier It’s not all bad news with participle phrases. They also offer a benefit.Here are two good reasons to think a little more about past participles (specifically, past participles in participle phrases). Let’s start with the benefit.Participles can be used to create a sentence structure that allows you to say two or more things about your subject efficiently. For example:This structure is particularly useful when writing staff appraisals. It allows the writer to shoehorn in an extra observation about the subject in a single sentence.When using the sentence structure in “Benefit 1,” writers must be careful not to write an ambiguous sentence by failing to put the participle phrase next to the word it’s modifying. For example:A misplaced modifier makes your sentence ambiguous or wrong. You can avoid a misplaced modifier by placing your modifier next to whatever it’s modifying. Let’s fix the example.Occasionally, writers create a mistake known as a dangling modifier . With a dangling modifier, the word being modified isn’t present in the sentence. For example:Here is a video summarizing this lesson past participles.

Ready for the Test?

Here is a confirmatory test for this lesson.

This test can also be:

• Edited (i.e., you can delete questions and play with the order of the questions).
• Printed to create a handout.
• Sent electronically to friends or students.

Here is afor this lesson.This test can also be:

Take a different test on past participles.

Take a different test on past participles.

Past Continuous

The Past Continuous tense is an important tense in English. We use it to say what we were in the middle of doing at a particular moment in the past.

In this lesson we look at the structure and the use of the Past Continuous tense, followed by a quiz to check your understanding.

Note that continuous tenses are also called progressive tenses. So the Past Continuous tense is sometimes called the Past Progressive tense.

How do we make the Past Continuous tense?

The structure of the past continuous tense is:

subject
+
auxiliary be
+
main verb

conjugated in Past Simple

 

was, were
present participle

The auxiliary verb (be) is conjugated in the Past Simple: was, were

The main verb is invariable in present participle form: -ing

For negative sentences we insert not between the auxiliary verb and the main verb.

For question sentences, we exchange the subject and the auxiliary verb.

Look at these example sentences with the Past Continuous tense:

 
subject
auxiliary verb
 
main verb
 

+
I
was
 
watching
TV.

+
You
were
 
working
hard.

–
He, she, it
was
not
helping
Mary.

–
We
were
not
joking.
 

?
Were
you
 
being
silly?

?
Were
they
 
playing
football?

The spelling rules for adding -ing to make the Past Continuous tense are the same as for the Present Continuous tense.

How do we use the Past Continuous tense?

The Past Continuous tense expresses action at a particular moment in the past. The action started before that moment but has not finished at that moment. For example, yesterday I watched a film on TV. The film started at 7pm and finished at 9pm.

At 8pm yesterday, I was watching TV.

past
present
future

8pm

 

At 8pm, I was in the middle of watching TV.
 
 

When we use the Past Continuous tense, our listener usually knows or understands what time we are talking about. Look at these examples:

• I was working at 10pm last night.
• They were not playing football at 9am this morning.
• What were you doing at 10pm last night?
• What were you doing when he arrived?
• She was cooking when I telephoned her.
• We were having dinner when it started to rain.
• Ram went home early because it was snowing.

We often use the Past Continuous tense to “set the scene” in stories. We use it to describe the background situation at the moment when the action begins. Often, the story starts with the Past Continuous tense and then moves into the Past Simple tense. Here is an example:

“James Bond was driving through town. It was raining. The wind was blowing hard. Nobody was walking in the streets. Suddenly, Bond saw the killer in a telephone box…”

Past Continuous + Past Simple

We often use the Past Continuous tense with the Past Simple tense. We use the Past Continuous to express a long action. And we use the Past Simple to express a short action that happens in the middle of the long action. We can join the two ideas with when or while.

In the following example, we have two actions:

1. long action (watching TV), expressed with Past Continuous
2. short action (telephoned), expressed with Past Simple

past
present
future

long action:
I was watching TV from 7pm to 9pm.

 
 

8pm

 

 

 
 

short action:
You phoned at 8pm.
 
 

We can join these two actions with when:

• I was watching TV when you telephoned.

Notice that “when you telephoned” is also a way of defining the time (8pm).

We use:

• when + short action (Past Simple)
• while + long action (Past Continuous)

There are four basic combinations:

 
I was walking past the car
when
it exploded.

When
the car exploded
 
I was walking past it.

 
The car exploded
while
I was walking past it.

While
I was walking past the car
 
it exploded.

Notice that the long action and short action are relative.

• “Watching TV” took two hours. “Telephoned” took a few seconds.
• “Walking past the car” took a few seconds. “Exploded” took milliseconds.