Why use participle phrases

Example: The smiling woman. Past participle : verbs ending in —ed except for some irregular verbs. Example: The washed dishes. What is a participial phrase? Examples: Exhausted after twenty hours of work , he collapsed as soon as he got home.

Possible rewrites: Slipping into bed , Anna still thought of Maggie. Possible rewrite: Susan sucked in a breath. Her eyes snapped open. Example: Unlocking the door , she went straight to bed. Possible rewrites: She unlocked the door and went straight to bed. Example: Hoping for a treat, the dog fetched the ball. If you have a participial phrase in the middle of a sentence, use two commas—one before and one after the participial phrase. Example: The dog, hoping for a treat, fetched the ball.

If the participial phrase follows the main clause, use a comma before the participial phrase. Example: The dog fetched the ball, hoping for a treat. Put your participle phrase next to its noun. If there isn't a noun, you're dangling and that's never good. Having read your letter , my cat could not have fathered your kittens.

Having read your letter , I can assure you that my cat could not have fathered your kittens. Ready for the Test? Here is a confirmatory test for this lesson. This test can also be: Edited i. Past participial phrases include participles in the past tense. This includes verbs that end in -ed as well as irregular verbs in the past tense. They describe conditions that happened before the action in the sentence.

Past participial phrases that start with the word "having" are known as perfect participial phrases. They describe an action that has already finished. Gerund phrases are another type of verbal phrase that uses -ing verbs. But in gerund phrases, the phrase that starts with an -ing verb functions as a noun, not as an adjective. Unlike participial phrases, which can include past and perfect participles, gerund phrases only appear in present progressive words that end in -ing.

If you can replace the phrase with another noun, such as "baseball" or "gymnastics," it's probably a gerund phrase. If not, you're likely looking at a participial phrase. Using participial phrases can make your sentences more interesting and informative. Readers enjoy knowing more about what's happening in a sentence, and any additional modifiers you can provide are helpful.

But be careful about where you put those participial phrases, and don't leave them as dangling modifiers! Learn more about dangling and misplaced modifiers to avoid this common and preventable grammar mistake. All rights reserved. Writing Studio Participles and Participle Phrases. A participle is a verbal, or a word based off of a verb that expresses a state of being, ending in -ing present tense or -ed, -en, -d, -t, -n, or -ne past tense that functions as an adjective.

This means it needs to modify or describe a noun or a pronoun.