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Participal clauses

Participle clauses are subordinate clauses that begin with present, past, or perfect participles and serve various functions such as indicating the result, reason, or simultaneous actions of another action. Present participle clauses can describe actions occurring simultaneously or provide additional information, while past participle clauses often imply a passive meaning and can express conditions or reasons for actions. Care must be taken to avoid confusing subjects in participle clauses, and negation can be achieved by placing 'not' before or after the participle verb.

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13 views

Participal clauses

Participle clauses are subordinate clauses that begin with present, past, or perfect participles and serve various functions such as indicating the result, reason, or simultaneous actions of another action. Present participle clauses can describe actions occurring simultaneously or provide additional information, while past participle clauses often imply a passive meaning and can express conditions or reasons for actions. Care must be taken to avoid confusing subjects in participle clauses, and negation can be achieved by placing 'not' before or after the participle verb.

Uploaded by

r.humoyunmirzo2004
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Participal clauses

They are formed using present participles (going, reading, seeing, walking,
etc.), past participles (gone, read, seen, walked, etc.) or perfect participles (having
gone, having read, having seen, having walked, etc.).

- A participle clause is a subordinate clause which begins with a


participle.

Use of Present participle clauses

To give the result of an action:


The bomb exploded, destroying the building
 To give the reason for an action
Knowing she loved reading, Richard bought her a book.

 To talk about an action that happened at the same time as another


action
Standing in the queue, I realised I didn't have any money.

 To add information about the subject of the main clause


Starting in the new year, the new policy bans cars in the city centre.

Use of Past participle clauses (past participles normally have a passive


meaning.)

 With a similar meaning to an if condition


Used in this way, participles can make your writing more concise. (If
you use participles in this way, … )
 To give the reason for an action
Worried by the news, she called the hospital.
 To add information about the subject of the main clause
Filled with pride, he walked towards the stage.

To make clear that one action is finished before the action in the main clause
is begun, we use Having + the past participle. And this basically works the
same way as ‘because’ or ‘after’.

Putting away the equipment, they talked about going home. (While putting
away...)
Having put away the equipment, they went home. (After they had put away...)
participle clauses usually mimic the same tense as the main clause:

Stepping on camera, I relaxed completely. (When I stepped)


Stepping on camera, I relax completely. (When I step)
Stepping on camera, I will relax completely. (When I step - future time clause)

it is possible to put a tense in a participle clause by itself.

Knowing I had a lesson today, I carried my laptop.


Knowing she loved reading, Richard bought her a book.
Seeing she had made the mistake, she corrected it immediately.

Be careful not to make a pariticiple clause with a confusing subject:


Seeing it fall, the tree hit me in the back. (This implies the tree saw it fall -
Better to say 'As I saw it fall' or 'When I saw it fall')

Feeling weak, the boy attacked the man. (Who is feeling weak here? - Better
to say 'While the man was feeling weak, the boy attacked him')

To make a participle clause negative, we use ‘not’, and this comes before
the participle verb.
Not knowing the baby slept, she phoned.
Not seeing the bus, the dog stepped into the road.
Not saying anything, she poured the glass of water over his head.

the ‘not’ can come after the participle verb depending on your meaning.

Not knowing the baby slept, she phoned. (Because she didn't know the baby slept.)
Knowing not to call because the baby slept, she waited until the next day. (Because
she knew not to call...)

All sorts of prepositions can sit before the participle verb to further emphasise
or clarify events’ order, time, cause and effect.

after, before, since, while and with

After eating, we sat on the couch.


Before leaving for work, they watched TV.
While waiting, I thought about my family.
Since coming to England, I have met a lot of new people.
By practising every day, she passed her driving test. (Because she practised - this
describes the method)
Without knowing it, I had ruined everything. (Although I didn't know it)

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