Participle

There are two participles in English.

One is often called the 'present participle', sometimes the 'active participle'. It always ends in -ing. (It is not only easier, but technically more useful, to call it simply the -ing participle.) Although it has several uses, it is clear which form of the verb is being used. (The verbal noun takes the same form; but the distinction is academic - i.e. not important - unless you are a grammarian.) You can't easily mistake it for any other words.

The second is sometimes called the 'past participle'; sometimes the 'passive participle'. (I prefer to call it the -ed participle, although one of the commonest of the irregularities among English verbs is when the past participle, or past tense, or both, end in letters other than -ed.) This is not the same as the past tense - though for regular verbs it looks exactly the same. When a verb form ending in -ed (or an equivalent) is used as a verb on its own - e.g. 'He curried the vegetables' - it is the past tense. When it is combined with the auxiliaries have or be - e.g. 'He has curried the meat', 'the meat was curried' - or used in a more free-standing way - 'curried, the meat was delicious' - it is a participle.

Usually, in English, adjectives go before the noun they describe (e.g. a green car, a bright student). Participles are much looser in the position they can take. 'Running for the bus she tripped' and 'She tripped, running for the bus' are both completely well-formed sentences, and their meanings cannot be distinguished.

For discussion of a common error, see hanging participle.