Participle

In the English language, a participle is an adjective form of a verb. A present participle is a verb with a suffix "-ing" while a past participle is a verb with suffix "-ed". Some verbs may have an odd suffix or another odd form instead of adding "-ed"; they are called irregular verbs.

Examples

• "talk" becomes "talking" and "talked"
• "do" becomes "doing" and "done"
• "get" becomes "getting" and "got" or "gotten".

A present participle is often confused with a gerund, a noun form of a verb with "-ing".

Other languages have different sorts of participles. E.g. Latin had:

• active present participle: educans "the one that teaches"
• passive past perfect participle: educatus "the one that has been taught"
• passive future participle: educandus "the one that shall be taught"

Old English ended present participles with -ind. In the East Midlands dialect, it merges with -ing, with originally only named actions.