Present Participle in English

Present Participles

What do these sentences have in common?

• I was waiting for you for an hour.
• I saw him running away from the crime scene.
• Arriving at the restaurant, I realized I was twenty minutes late.

All of them use a present participle, otherwise known as the '-ing' form of a verb, or action word. As the informal name implies, this form combines a base verb with the ending -ing, as in 'waiting', 'amazing', 'running', and 'arriving'. This verb form often confuses writers and readers because it has several different functions in a sentence.

The present participle can be combined with other verbs to show continuous action or perception, but it can also be an adjective, either on its own or as part of a participial phrase.

Continuous Action

The easiest function of a present participle to wrap your head around is to show continuous action. In this form, the present participle combines with a helping verb, such as 'be' or 'was', to show continuous action. It can show continuous action in the past, present, future, and conditional tense. Here are some examples of the present participle showing continuous action:

• He is writing in his office right now.
• I was studying for my math test yesterday.
• My band will be playing at the Rhythm Room tomorrow night.
• We would be moving already, but our house has not sold yet.
• John would have been leaving, but he got stuck in a long conversation with Maureen.

Perception

The present participle is also used in combination with what are called verbs of perception, which are verbs like 'watch', 'see', and 'hear'. In this form, the verb of perception is combined with an object and present participle to describe what the subject of the sentence saw or heard the object of the sentence doing. Let's take a look at some examples of the present participle showing perception:

• I saw him mowing his lawn yesterday.
• Jane heard Susan singing in the shower.
• I can see you hiding from me.
• I watched him cooking dinner.

Adjectives

And now, here is where present participles get a little tricky. While they are verbs, or action words, present participles can also function as adjectives, or words that describe or modify a noun. This is most commonly seen in present participles like 'amazing', 'exciting', and 'boring', which are used frequently as adjectives. Here are some examples of the present participle used as an adjective:

• This class is so boring!
• I saw the most exciting film last night.
• This book is amazing.

But they can also be used with other verbs as well:

• The crying baby annoyed everyone on the plane.
• The smiling doctor gave the patient good news.
• The burning tree made a huge fire.

Participial Phrase

Now that we have established that present participles can be adjectives, we get to its trickiest usage when used as a part of a participial phrase. A participial phrase is a group of words that includes a present participle and functions, as a whole, as an adjective. This is hard to understand from just a definition, so it is best to look at examples:

• Carrying a stack of books, John walked across the library.
• Waiting for Caitlin to pick her up, Joanna grew impatient.
• Staring at the finish line, the runner prepared for the race.