The past participle (passive) and the perfect participle (passive)

A. Form

The past participle of regular verbs is formed by addinged or d to the in
finitive, e.g. worked, loved.

For the past participle of irregular verbs, see the table in Appendix 1 of this
grammar book and in dictionaries.

B. Use

1. As an adjective:

stolen money a written report fallen trees

tired drivers blocked roads broken glass

2. To form the perfect tenses/infinitives and participles and the passive
voice:

he has seen to have loved it was broken

3. The past participle can replace a subject + passive verb just as the
present participle can replace subject + active verb:

She enters. She is accompanied by her mother.

= She enters, accompanied by her mother.

He was aroused by the crash and leapt to his feet

= Aroused by the crash, he leapt to his feet.

The bridge had been weakened by successive storms and was no
longer safe = Weakened by successive storms, the bridge was
no longer safe or Having been weakened etc. (see below).

As he was convinced that they were trying to poison him,

he refused to eat anything = Convinced that they were trying
to poison him, he refused to eat anything.

C. The perfect participle passive (having been + past participle) is used when it
is necessary to emphasize that the action expressed by the participle
happened before the action expressed by the next verb:

Having been warned about the bandits, he left his valuables at home.

= (He had been warned etc.)

Having been bitten twice, the postman refused to deliver our letters
unless we chained our dog up.= (He had been bitten etc.)

9. participles used as adjectives before and after nouns

Participles as adjectives cannot always be used before nouns. We can say an
interesting book or a broken window but it is not normal to say the climbing
man or the discussed problems. Why is this?

When we put a participle before the noun, it is usually expresses some more
permanent characteristic: it is more like an adjective than a verb. If we talk
about an interesting book we probably do not mean that the book is
interesting somebody at the moment we speak; we are talking about a
general quality of the book. On the other hand, if we talk about a man
climbing on a rock, or about the problems discussed at the meeting, or the
window broken last night, we are thinking more of the actions. Compare:

I’ll never get married - I don’t want to spend my life surrounded by
dirty washing and screaming children.

Did you hear that child screaming?

In the first sentence. the speaker suggests that screaming is a permanent
characteristic of children; in the second, screaming refers to a single action.

Here are some more expressions in which the participle must go after the /
noun:

the only place left the people taking part

any person objecting all children wishing to compete

the success just obtained

Most of the people singing were students.

Many of the people questioned refused to answer.

It is not always easy to explain why one participle can be used before a
noun (a lost dog), but another one cannot (a built house). This is a
complicated area of English grammar which has not been completely
analysed.

Note also that many past participles can be put before a noun only if they
are used in the compound adjective structure adverb + participle. We
cannot say *a built house or * the mentioned point but we can say a
recently-built house or the above-mentioned point.

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 1438