The Present (or Active) Participle

A. Form

The infinitive +ing, e.g. working, loving, sitting.

B. Use

1. To form the continuous tenses:

He is working. You've been dreaming.

2. As adjectives:

running water floating wreckage

dripping taps leaking pipes

Here there is equal stress on participle and noun.

3. Afterhave + object:

He had me swimming in a week.

We have people standing on our steps all day.

I won't have him cleaning his bike in the kitchen.

4. A present participle can sometimes replace a relative pronoun + verb:

a map that marks/marked political boundaries

= a map marking political boundaries
people who wish/wished to visit the caves

= people wishing to visit the caves

children who need/needed medical attention

= children needing medical attention

5. Present participles/participle phrases such asadding/pointing out/
reminding/warning can introduce statements in indirect speech:

He told me to start early, reminding me that the roads

would be crowded.

6. After verbs of sensation (see 120)

7. Aftercatch/find/leave + object (see 121)

8. Aftergo, come, spend, waste, be busy (see 122)

9. Present participles can sometimes replace subject + verb in other main
or subordinate clauses other than those mentioned above (see 123-4).

Present Participle after verbs of sensation

A. The basic verbs of sensationsee, hear, feel, smell, and the verbs listen
(to), notice andwatch can be followed by object + present participle:

/ see him passing my house every day.

Didn 't you hear the clock striking?

She smelt something burning and saw smoke rising.

The action in the present participle may be either complete or incomplete:
/ saw him changing the wheel could mean that I watched the whole action
or that I saw only part of it.

B. see, hear, feel and sometimeslisten (to), notice andwatch can also be
followed by object + bare infinitive:

We saw him leave the house.

I heard him make arrangements for his journey.

The infinitive implies that the action is complete. / saw him change the
wheel means that I saw the whole action.

C. Comparison of the two forms

The participle is the more generally useful as it can express both complete
and incomplete actions. But the infinitive is useful when we want to
emphasize that the action is complete. It is also neater than the participle
when there is a succession of actions:

I saw him enter the room, unlock a drawer, take out a document, photograph it and put it back.

D. In the passive the full infinitive is used after verbs of the senses:

He was heard to say that the minister had been bribed.

3. catch, find, leave + object + present participle

A. catch/find:

/ caught them stealing my apples. (I found them doing this.)

If she catches you reading her diary, she'll be furious.

The action expressed by the participle is always one which displeases the
subject. Withfind there is no feeling of displeasure:

I found him standing at the door

= I saw him standing/He was standing at the door when I arrived.

Withfind the object could be inanimate:

He found a tree lying across the road.

B.leave can be used with a participle:

I left him talking to Bob = He was talking to Bob when I left.

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 1170