participle

English

Etymology

From Middle English participle, from Old French participle (1388), variant of participe, from Latin participium.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /pɑːˈtɪsɪpəl/, /ˈpɑːtɪsɪpəl/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈpɑɹtɪˌsɪpəl/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

participle (plural participles)

1. (grammar) A form of a verb that may function as an adjective, noun or adverb. English has two types of participles: the present participle and the past participle. In other languages, there are others, such as future, perfect, and future perfect participles.

Usage notes

Contemporary English constructs the perfect, progressive and progressive perfect aspects, and the passive voice from participles and auxiliary verbs. The tense is always expressed through the auxiliary verb.

• I have asked. (present tense, perfect aspect)
• I am asking. (present tense, progressive aspect)
• I am asked. (present tense, passive voice)

When not combined with have or be, participles are almost always adjectives and can form adjectival phrases called participial phrases. Nouns can occasionally be derived from these adjectives:

• the following items
• the following
• the dying victims
• the dying

In English, participles typically end in -ing, -ed or -en.

A present participle ending in -ing has the same form but a different function from a verbal noun called a gerund:

• food for the starving (participle)
• they barely avoided starving (gerund)

Sometimes a present participle (adjective) is mistakenly called a gerund (noun).

Hypernyms

• verbal

Hyponyms

• active participle
• adverbial participle
• agent participle
• dangling participle
• future participle
• gerund-participle
• hanging participle
• passive participle
• past active participle
• past participle
• perfect participle
• perfect passive participle
• present active participle
• present participle
• verbal participle

 

Derived terms

• gerund-participle

Translations

verb form

• Albanian: pjesore (sq) f
• Arabic: اِسْم فَاعِل (ar) m (ism fāʕil), اِسْم مَفْعُول (ar) m (ism mafʕūl)
• Armenian: դերբայ (hy) (derbay)
• Asturian: participiu m
• Azerbaijani: feli sifət
• Basque: partizipio
• Belarusian: дзеепрыме́тнік m (dzjejeprymjétnik), дзеяпрыме́тнік m (dzjejaprymjétnik)
• Bulgarian: прича́стие (bg) n (pričástie)
• Catalan: participi (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 分詞／分词 (zh) (fēncí)

• Czech: příčestí (cs) n, participium (cs) n
• Danish: participium n, tillægsform c
• Dutch: deelwoord (nl) n
• Esperanto: participo (eo)
• Estonian: kesksõna (et)
• Faroese: lýsingarháttur m
• Finnish: partisiippi (fi)
• French: participe (fr) m
• Galician: participio (gl) m
• Georgian: მიმღეობა (mimɣeoba)
• German: Mittelwort (de) n, Partizip (de) n, Partizipium (de) n
• Greek: μετοχή (el) f (metochí)

  Ancient: μετοχή f (metokhḗ)

• Hebrew: בֵּינוֹנִי (he) m (bēnoní)
• Hindi: कृदंत (hi) m (kŕdant)
• Hungarian: melléknévi igenév (hu)
• Icelandic: lýsingarháttur (is) m
• Ido: participo (io)
• Irish: rangabháil f
• Italian: participio (it) m
• Japanese: 分詞 (ja) (ぶんし, bunshi)
• Kazakh: есімше (esımşe)
• Korean: 분사 (ko) (bunsa)
• Kyrgyz: атоочтук (ky) (atooctuk)
• Latin: participium (la) n
• Latvian: divdabis (lv) m, particips m
• Lithuanian: dalyvis (lt) m
• Macedonian: партицип m (particip)
• Malay: partisipel
• Mongolian: үйлт нэр (üjlt ner)
• Norman: participe m (Jersey)
• Northern Sami: ^{(please verify)} partisihppa
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: partisipp (no) n

  Nynorsk: partisipp n

• Old High German: teilnemunga f
• Persian: وجه وصفی (vajh-e vasfi)
• Polish: imiesłów (pl) m
• Portuguese: particípio (pt)
• Romanian: participiu (ro) n
• Russian: прича́стие (ru) n (pričástije)
• Scottish Gaelic: rann-phàirt f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: партицип m

  Roman: particip (sh) m

• Slovak: príčastie n
• Slovene: deležnik (sl) m
• Spanish: participio (es) m
• Swedish: particip (sv) n
• Tagalog: pandiwari
• Tajik: сифати феълӣ (sifat-i feʾli)
• Turkish: ortaç (tr), durum ortacı (tr), sıfat-fiil (tr), partisip (tr)
• Ukrainian: дієприкме́тник (uk) m (dijeprykmétnyk)
• Uzbek: sifatdosh (uz)
• Vietnamese: phân từ (vi)
• Walloon: pårticipe (wa) m
• Welsh: rhangymeriad m
• West Frisian: mulwurd

Further reading

• “participle”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• participle in Britannica Dictionary