Sunday, January 6, 2013

Present participle, past participle, perfect participle


1) present participle
The present participle is often used when we want to express an active action.
In English we add -ing to the infinitive of the verb.

Use of the present participle
Progressive/
Continuous tense
He is reading a book.
He was reading a book.
Gerund
Reading books is fun.
He likes reading books.
Participle
Look at the reading boy.
He came reading around the corner.
He sat reading in the corner.
I saw him reading.

2-1) past participle
The present participle is often used when we want to express a passive action.
In English we add -ed to the infinitive of regular verbs. We use the 3rd column of the table of the irregular verbs.

Use of the past participle
Perfect tenses
He has forgotten the pencil.
He had forgotten the pencil.
Passive voice
A house is built.
A house was built.
Participle
Look at the washed car.
The car washed yesterday is blue.
He had his car washed.


2-2) Compounds with the past participle
This combination is also known as perfect participle. It is used to form an active sentence with the past participle. There is a time gap between the actions.
past participle and having

Having read the book the boy came out of the room.
One action happened after the other.

present participle

The boy came reading out of the room.
Both actions happened at the same time.




Participles, Participle constructions


Use
1
to shorten relative clauses
2
to make one sentence out of two
3
after verbs of "perception" (e.g. see, watch, hear, listen to, smell, feel)
4
after verbs of "rest" and "movement" (e.g. run, go, come, stay, stand, lie, sit)
5
after the verb have
6
instead of a subordinate clause
Form
present participle
an exciting race

past participle
excited people
Examples
1
The cars which are produced in Japan are nice.
The cars produced in Japan are nice.
2
I saw the man. He came to the shop.
I saw the man coming to the shop.
3
I saw the car coming round the corner.
4
The girl sat sleeping on the sofa.
5
I have my clothes washed.
6
When they went to Texas they expected a better job.
Going to Texas they expected a better job.

The comparison of adverbs in English

There are three forms:
- positive
- comparative
- superlative


A - Comparison with -er/-est
hard - harder - (the) hardest
We use -er/-est with the following adverbs:

1) all adverbs with one syllable
positive
comperative
superlative
fast
faster
fastest
high
higher
highest

1) the adverb early
positive
comperative
superlative
early
earlier
earliest


B - Comparison with more - most
adverbs ending on -ly
(except: early)
positive
comperative
superlative
carefully
more carefully
(the) most carefully


C - Irregular adverbs
positive
comperative
superlative
well
better
best
badly
worse
worst
much
more
most
little
less
least
late
later
last
far
farther
further
farthest
furthest

ATTENTION!
In informal English some adverbs are used without -ly (e.g. cheap, loud, quick).
There are two forms of comparison possible, depending on the form of the adverb:
cheaply - more cheaply - most cheaply
cheap - cheaper - cheapest