The grammar system of the English language is a real obstacle course that stands between the mythical Perfect English and the novice linguist. Having successfully overcome the simple present, having skipped, not having stumbled, on the basis of the article system, having climbed to the top of the mountain of prepositions and phrasal verbs, the "cadet" runs into the wall, consisting of the types and characteristics of English participles. Let's try to disassemble the obstacle by bricks.
Communion as part of speech
Languages in which the participle stands out as a separate part of speech are considered a priori complex, but also rich - thanks to the expressed range of meanings. In English, there are two types of participles: Participle 1 (present tense) and Participle 2 (past tense). They have the properties of a verb, adverb and an adjective and can act as:
- parts of the verb group and used to build the temporary structures Continuous (continued), Perfect (perfect) and Perfect Continuous (continued perfect);
- definitions (separately or as part of a participial phrase);
- circumstances (separately or as part of a participial phrase).
When translating into Russian, verbs, adjectives, participles and participles can be used. By the way, the latter do not have a grammatical equivalent in the English language.
Present participle
Participle 1 is formed from the basic form of the verb by attaching the ending -ing to it and expresses an active meaning. The described action either occurs at the moment, or is not finished.
The participles 1 in English are used as an integral part of the grammatical construction of extended tenses, in particular Present, Past and Future Continuous, as well as the tenses of the Perfect Continuous group:
- I am reading an article about Participles in English. I am currently reading an article on participles in English.
- I was reading an article yesterday when you called me. I read the article yesterday when you called me.
- I will be reading this article at this time tomorrow. I will be reading an article at this time tomorrow.
- I have been reading this article since early morning. I read this article in the early morning.
In addition, the present participle is also used to express an action that occurs simultaneously with the described predicate: Look at the man reading an article. Look at the man reading the article.
Communion 1 and gerund
In English, there is a grammatical phenomenon that is outwardly identical to participle 1: gerund is also formed by attaching the -ing ending to a verb. However, it is necessary to distinguish between these twin brothers, as they have different components of meaning. Consider the following examples:
- The man reading a newspaper looks to be intelligent. A man reading a newspaper looks smart.
- Reading is an intellectual way of spending time. Reading is an intellectual way of spending time.
In the first sentence, the word reading describes the hero of the story, that is, functionally similar to the adjective - it is participle 1. In the second example, reading is translated into Russian using a noun - this is gerund. Thus, the sacrament expresses the sign of the object, and the gerund - names the object or phenomenon.
Past participle
Communion 2 in English is formed by attaching the -ed ending to the main form of regular verbs, and the so-called third form of irregular verbs needs to be memorized - this is another difficulty in the way of all those who study the language of Misty Albion. The meaning conveyed by the past participle can conditionally be attributed to the Russian sufferer.
Areas of use for past participles in English include the following:
- The formation of the grammar group of the perfect tense in the active voice in combination with the auxiliary verb to have and its modifications, for example: I have read an interesting article recently (I recently read an interesting article). Perfect times traditionally cause great difficulties for our compatriots studying English, since there is no such grammatical structure in Russian. In particular, the present perfect tense in the previous example is translated using the verb in the past, which is puzzling. However, if you think about it and try to analyze the thoughts of the native speaker of the main international language, everything falls into place: the hero of the example literally has an interesting article to read - he talks about his condition in the present tense, that is, participle 2 actually expresses the passive meaning, as already it was said.
- The formation of the passive voice of all times in combination with the forms of the verb to be: My article has already been read by one million users of this site. My article has been read by a million users of this site.
- Performing the function of the nominal part of a compound predicate after state verbs (be, look, feel, etc.): He looked depressed. He looked upset.
Sacrament Functions
Communions can fulfill a wide range of functions in a sentence. They can act as:
- Definitions and translated using the adjective: Her smiling face was the most beautiful I have ever seen. Her smiling face was the most beautiful that I saw in life. The broken car made my day awful. A broken car made my day terrible. The participles often come before nouns, but they can also come after if their meaning is closer to the verb than the adjective: the problems remaining - remaining problems, the questions discussed - discussed issues, etc. If the participle function is used in the definition function, then it stands after the noun: The man staring at me looked familiar. The man staring at me looked familiar. The article sent yesterday had already been published. An article posted yesterday has already been published.
- Circumstances (time, reason, course of action, etc.): Having fun, don't forget about security. When you have fun, do not forget about safety. Asked, what name they chose for their baby, they answered that they hadn't decided yet. When asked what they would call the baby, they said they had not decided yet. Depressed by the situation, he didn't know what to say. He did not know what to answer, as he was upset by the situation. It is worth noting that more often such turns are replaced by subordinate clauses, compare, for example, When they were asked ... etc.
- A difficult addition - for students of English, these constructions are known as complex objects. The present participle is used in such a function after the verbs of perception to express the process of action: I saw her reading an article. I saw her reading an article. The past participles as a definition demonstrate that the object of the sentence is exposed to the action expressed by the participle: I heard her name mentioned. I heard that her name was mentioned. In addition, there is often a construction with the participle 2 have something done, indicating that someone performed an action for you: I had my article well-evaluated yesterday. My article was highly appreciated yesterday.
Communion after the verb to be
It is necessary to distinguish between two functions that the participles 1 and 2 in the English language can fulfill, which follow the verb to be:
- His appearance is shocking. He has a shocking appearance.
- Make him go away! He is shocking people by his behavior. Make him leave! He shockes people with his behavior.
In the first sentence, participle 1 performs the function of an adjective, and in the second sentence, it is part of the verb construction of the present extended tense.
Loose communion
Approaching this station ... my hat flew off (A.P. Chekhov)
Anton Pavlovich in his humorous story parodied a common stylistic mistake in the Russian language - the misuse of the sacramental participle. In English, as we have already said, such a grammatical phenomenon does not exist, but a similar error occurs and is called "loose communion." We talk about this when the sacrament is connected with the wrong noun: Reading an article, dinner was burnt. Reading the article, dinner burned out. Such sentences need to be rebuilt, for example, Reading an article, I forgot about dinner and burnt it. Reading the article, I forgot about dinner and burned it.
It is worth noting that in the English language, some prepositions and conjunctions can act as participles, for example, considering, including, provided that, etc. Their appearance without reference to the subject is not considered an error. The same applies to some stable expressions: generally speaking, taking into consideration, etc.
The formation of an independent participial circulation
If the sacrament has its own subject, we are talking about an independent participial circulation. Such constructions are quite rare in everyday speech and are often introduced using the preposition with. Here are some examples of sentences with independent participles:
With so much time spent, this project must succeed! Please note that when translating into Russian, the relative clause is used: Since a lot of time has been spent, this project should be successful!
Moscow is the business capital of Russia with Saint-Petersburg being the culture capital. Moscow is the business capital of Russia, and St. Petersburg is the cultural capital.
Examples of participles in the English language can be heard very often in the speech of the speakers, therefore, students should have a good understanding of a system that seems very confusing. In order to be able to automatically produce the correct constructions without hesitation, we recommend memorizing special poems that can easily be found in textbooks and the Internet.