Present Participle

A Present Participle is a Participle that expresses present action.

• Context:
  • It can form the Progressive Aspect, e.g. “John is running”.
  • It can modify a Noun with Active Sense, e.g. “Let standing trees fall”.
  • It can modify a Verb or a Sentence, "Speaking from experience, the initiative was suspect."
• Example(s):
  • “running” ⇒ "John is [running]”
  • “opening” ⇒ "They are [opening] the gifts."
  • “abriendo” ⇒ “”Ellos están [abriendo] los regalos."
• Counter-Example(s):
  • “nagging” ⇒ "I enjoy [nagging] Bill.”, a Direct Object Gerund.
  • “nagging” ⇒ "[Nagging] Bill is enjoyable.”, a Sentence Subject Gerund.
• See: Future Participle, Gerund.

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References

• (WordNet, 2009) ⇒ http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=present%20participle
  • S: (n) present participle (a participle expressing present action; in English is formed by adding -ing)
• http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/present_participle
  • Noun
    • 1. (grammar): A verb form that indicates an ongoing action or state in the present and which functions as an adjective.
  • Usage notes
    • In English, the present participle takes the suffix -ing and is preceded by a form of the verb to be to make the progressive tenses of a verb.

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