Download Participial Phrases

3-part lesson:
THE VERBAL PHRASES
 Participles
 Gerunds
 Infinitives
Participial Phrases
►Def: Participle is a form of a verb that functions as an adjective
 Verb-like but not the main verb
►Participles can be taken out of a sentence without affecting the function of the sentence.
►Separated from the rest of the sentence by a comma **if the phrase comes after the word it
describes BUT sometimes if it comes before the word it describes**
►Present participles always end in –ing; Past participles usually end in –ed or –en
► The phrase will never contain the subject. Find the who/what, find the main verb, the
second verb will be your participle.
Examples:
**nouns and pronouns are underlined; Participles are capitalized; participle
phrases are bolded.
Main Verbs are in italics
[Present Participles]
 The car, sliding out of control toward the building, is going to hit the window
o SLIDING modifies the CAR. The verb is IS GOING
 She was quite far from the windows which were to her left, and behind her were a couple
of tall bookcases, CONTAINING all the books of the factory library.
°Containing is what the bookcases are doing but is not the verb. WAS is the
verb.
► Don’t confuse participles and verbs:
*The sputtering car jerked down the road. (participle)
*The car was sputtering down the road. (verb)
Participles
1. Minute fungi overspread the whole exterior, hanging in a fine tangle webwork from the eaves.
2. Standing there in the middle of the street, Marty suddenly thought of
Halloween, of the winter and snowballs, of the schoolyard.
3. Professor Kazan, wearing a spotlessly white tropical suit and a wide-brimmed
hat, was the first ashore.
4. In six months a dozen small towns had been laid down upon the naked
planet, filled with sizzling neon tubes and yellow electric bulbs.
5. The tent, illuminated by candle, glowed warmly in the midst of the plain.
[Past Participles]
**nouns and pronouns are underlined; Participles are capitalized; participle
phrases are bolded.
MainVerbs are italized; Verb phrases are highlighted in Red

In six months a dozen small towns had been laid down upon the naked planet,
FILLED with sizzling neon tubes and yellow electric bulbs.

The tent, ILLUMINATED by candle, glowed warmly in the midst of the plain.

Her hair, BRAIDED and WRAPPED around her head, made an ash-blonde crown.
Practice:
Unscrambling:
♣ Sometimes the positions of participial phrases can be moved within a sentence: as
opener, subject-verb split, or closer.
♣ Sometimes there is only one position for the participial phrase.
1. a. was waiting on the landing outside
b. Bernard
c. wearing a black turtleneck sweater, dirty flannels, and slippers
Bernard, wearing a black turtleneck…., was waiting on the landing outside.
2. A. lost his grip
B. dropping helplessly straight down toward the far end of the trailer
C. and fell free
D. Malcolm
Malcolm, lost his grip and fell free, dropping helplessly
….
3. A. coming down the pole
B. with no control over my movements
C. had a sense
D. I
E. of being whirled violently through the air
(sentence opener)
4. A. black
B. a little house
C. perched on the high piles
D. in the distance
E. appeared
(subject-verb split)