Past Participle As Verb? 3 Facts You Should Know

In this article we will be looking in detail about past participle. Can we use part participle as verb? If you have questions like this, then do read the article as we will be dealing with various important facts about past participle.

Past participle is a non-finite verb. Yes, past participle does not have a tense, as it is a form of a verb ending with ‘-ed’, ‘-d’, ‘-en’, or ‘-t’.  It has the nature of both verb and adjective. How can we say past participle as verb? We can see that below.

Do go through the following past participle examples to get a basic idea.

• 1. Deceived by his best friends, Shikar felt very bad. (-ed)
• 2. Preetam has completed all her home work. (-ed)
• 3. Surya has eaten all the ice cream by himself. (-en)
• 4. Having been warned by the police, he left bike racing. (-ed)
• 5. Lessons that are learnt hard are never forgotten. (-t, -en)
• 6. Mr. Gupta is one of the learned men in the hall. (-ed)
• 7. Ruhi is stricken with grief since that unfortunate incident. (-en)
• 8. The dinner menu had a lot of roasted meat dishes. (-ed)
• 9. The frightened kid was crying all throughout the day. (-ed)
• 10. The match is being watched by us. (-ed)
• 11. Started by a group of budding entrepreneurs, this xyz company has become a unicorn today. (-ed)
• 12. It took some time before the startled child came back to it’s senses. (-ed)
• 13. Trust once broken by best friends remains unhealed. (-en, -ed)
• 14. The tree was bent at the middle of its trunk. (-t)
• 15. The naughty boy was sent home from the hostel. (-t)

The words which are italicized in the above sentences are the past participle verbs. The past participles in each of the sentences are formed by adding the letters given in the brackets to the base verb. Note that the suffixes are different when it comes to different action words. However, for some action words, there can be more than one past participle formed by adding different suffixes as in example no 5 and 6 with the action word ‘learn’. The past participles are used for different reasons in each sentence. We will be seeing that in the uses of past participles.

Is past participle form of verb?

Indeed, past participle is type of action word. In specific, past participle is a non-finite verb that is formed by adding ‘-ed’, ‘-d’, ‘-en’ or ‘-t’ to the base verb. The past participle is a form of verb that does not have any tense of it’s own. It’s tense is based on the other helping verbs in the sentence.

Example: He has checked the draft and was sure of submitting it.

The past participle in this sentence is ‘checked’. ‘Checked’ is the past participle form of the base verb ‘check’. The past participle type of the action word ‘check’, is shaped by adding ‘- ed’ to it. Here, the perfect tense is formed with the aid of the past participle and the tense is denoted with the use of ‘has’.

How is past participle form of verb?

Past participle is a form of verb, as they denote actions. But however, past participles have the nature of both verb and adjectives.

Example: Having finished eating, Riya went to bed.

In the above example, ‘Finished’ is the past participle of the root verb ‘finish’. The suffix ‘-ed’ is added to the action word ‘finish’ to form the past participle. Here, the past participle ‘finished’ is a verb form used to denote an action that is over.

Example: All of you must submit the finished homework

But, in this sentence, the past participle ‘finished’ is functioning as a verbal adjective that is used to describe the noun ‘homework’.

Why to use past participle as verb?

Well, past participles are used as verbs along with the helping verbs to form the various perfect tenses such as present perfect tense, past perfect tense, and future perfect tense.

Example: Subham has spoken to me about this already.

In the above example, ‘spoken’ is the past participle verb of the root verb ‘speak’ which is shaped by adding ‘-en’. Here, the past participle is used to denote the present perfect tense with the help of the verb ‘has’ because of the singularity of the subject ‘Subham’.

Example: They have spoken to me about this already.

Here, ‘spoken’ is used to denote the present perfect tense along with the helping verb ‘have’ because of the plurality of the subject ‘they’.

Example: Shubham had spoken to me about this already.

Here, ‘spoken’ is used to denote the past perfect tense along with the helping verb ‘had’.

Irrespective of the number associated with the subject, the helping verb ‘had’ does not change for the past perfect tense.

Example: Shubham will have spoken to me about this by tomorrow.

Here, ‘spoken’ is used to denote the future perfect tense along with the helping verb ‘will have’.

Irrespective of the singularity or the plurality of the subject in future perfect tense, the helping verb ‘will have’ remains the same.

Hence, from the above sentence, we came to understand that past participle is a non-finite verb form that is used to denote the perfect tenses with the aid of the helping verbs.

Use of past participle verb

Listed below are the various functions or uses of the past participle form of the verb.

1. The past participles, though is a form of verb, can be used as adjectives (verbal adjectives) when they are qualifying or modifying the nouns in a sentence

Example: The fallen leaves looked like a carpet on the floor.

‘Fallen’ is the past participle verb in the above example sentence. ‘Fallen’ is the past participle type of the root verb ‘fall’ which is formed by adding the suffix ‘-en’. Here, the past participle verb is used as an adjective (verbal adjective) as it describes the noun ‘leaves’.

2. The past participle verb, can be used to replace the subject passive verb in a sentence.

Example: Sudha left, accompanied by her father = Sudha left. She is accompanied by her father.

In this sentence, ‘accompanied’ is the past participle. ‘Accompanied’ is the past participle form of the base verb ‘accompany’. The root verb ‘accompany’ is made into a past participle by adding ‘-ed’. Thus, the past participle ‘accompanied’ is replacing the subject ‘she’ and the passive verb ‘is accompanied’.

3. Past Participle verb is used to form the perfect tenses.

Example: Kajal will have reached Pune by this time tomorrow.

‘Reached’ is the past participle in this sentence and it is created by adding the suffix ‘-ed’ to the action word (verb) ‘reach’. Here, ‘reached’ is used to denote the future perfect tense along with the helping verb ‘will have’.

4. Past participle verb is used to form the passive voice.

Example: Active Voice – Everyone loves Mihika.

Passive Voice – Mihika is loved by everyone.

In this passive voice sentence, ‘loved’ is the past participle. ‘Loved’ is the past participle form of the base verb ‘love’. The past participle type of the action word ‘love’, is shaped by adding ‘-d’ to it. Here, in this example, the past participle ‘loved’ is used to change the active voice into the passive voice ‘is loved’.

5. The past participle verb is used when you have to give more importance to the action done by the participle than the action that the next verb does.

Example: Having been advised by his father, he stopped eating junk food.

‘Advised’ is the past participle verb in this example. ‘Advised’ is the past participle form of the base verb ‘advise’. The suffix ‘-d’ is added to the action word ‘advise’ to form the past participle form. In this sentence, past participle is used to show the importance of the verb ‘advise’. So here, past participle verb form is used to show emphasis.

If you carefully observe, the suffixes added to most of the action words in the previous examples is ‘-ed’. But when the action word is already with the letter ‘e’ as in the case of ‘advise’, note that the suffix added is ‘-d’ and not ‘-ed’.

Conclusion

Consequently, past participle is certainly an action word structure (verb). More specifically it is a non-limited action word (non-finite verb) , which does the capacity of both an action word and a modifier (verbal descriptor).