Participle Adjectives

participles past participles present participles

Participle adjectives are the same form as participles with the same characteristics with adjectives.

What Are Participle Adjectives?

'Participle adjectives' are adjectives that are formed from the participle form of a verb. A participle is a verb form that can be used as an adjective to modify a noun or pronoun.

Types of Participle

The two types of participles in English are:

Present Participle (verb + -ing)
Past Participle (verb + -ed/-en)

Present Participles

'Present participle adjectives' are formed by adding the suffix '-ing' to the base form of the verb. Pay attention to the examples:

The movie annoys me. → The movie is annoying.

The play amused us. →The play was amusing.

The bird that flew had blue feathers. → The flying bird had blue feathers.

using participles as adjectives

Past Participles

'Past participle adjectives' are usually formed by adding the suffix '-ed' or '-en' to verbs. However, sometimes the past participle form is irregular. These adjectives are usually used for living things because non-living objects cannot experience feelings or actions.

The stunned boy lived on his own.

I was pleased after talking to the young lady.

I think I am a little confused now.

He is always misunderstood.

He was killed for an unknown reason.

Participle Adjectives: Functions

Participle adjectives can be used as:

A pre-positive adjective
A post-positive adjective

You can't fix a broken heart. (pre-positive)

I am left with nothing but a heart broken by his actions. (post-positive)

Compound Participle Adjectives

Adding a noun, adverb, or adjective before a participle adjective forms a compound participle adjective that is still considered a participle adjective. Look at the following examples:

There is a never-ending love between them.

They create long-lasting flowers using a special substance.

Hyphen

When forming compound participle adjectives, don't forget to insert a hyphen between the participle adjective and the preceding word.

Review

'Participle adjectives' are present participles or past participles formed from a verb that ends in -ing or -ed.
They are usually used to express feelings, however, they can be used in different cases. So it is better to consider them descriptive adjectives.

Attributive and Predicative Adjectives

An attributive adjective is an adjective that appears before the noun or pronoun it describes. In this lesson, we will learn more about them.

Compound Adjectives

Compound adjectives are used as one single adjective. They function as the head of the sentence. In this lesson, we will learn all about them.

Proper Adjectives

Proper adjectives are commonly used in English. They tend to modify nouns and pronouns. in this lesson, we will learn more about them.

Postpositive Adjectives

Post-positive adjectives or postnominal adjectives are mainly placed immediately after the noun. In this lesson, we will learn all about them.

Gradable and Ungradable Adjectives

'Gradable' means being able to put something into different grades. So, What are the differences between gradable and ungradable adjectives?

Comparable and Non-comparable Adjectives

Descriptive adjectives are categorized into two main groups including: classifying adjectives and qualifying adjectives. We will learn more in this lesson.

Download LanGeek app

Langeek