Page 411 - Practical English Usage 3ed - Michael Swan, Oxford
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use
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verb forms
Participles are used with the auxiliary verbs be and have to make progressive, perfect and passive verb forms.
It was raining when I got home.
I've forgotten your name. You'll be told as soon as possible.
Present and past participles can be put together to make progressive and perfect forms (e.g. being employed, having arrived, having been invited).
adjectives
Participles can be used like adjectives.
I love the noise offalling rain. John has become very boring. She says she's got a broken heart. The house looked abandoned.
adverbs
Sometimes participles are used like adverbs.
She ran screaming out of the room.
clauses
Participles can combine with other words into clause-like structures.
Who's the fat man sitting in the corner?
Having lost all my money, I went home.
Most ofthe people invited to the party didn't tum up. Rejected by all hisfriends, he decided to become a monk.
For details of these uses, see the foUowing sections.
participles (2): active and passive
active present participles, passive past participles
When -ing forms are used like adjectives or adverbs, they have similar meanings to active verbs.
falling leaves (= leaves that faIl)
a meat-eating animal (= an animal that eats meat) She walked out smiling. (= She was smiling.)
Most past participles have passive meanings when they are used like adjectives or adverbs.
a broken heart (= a heart that has been broken)
He lived alone, forgotten by everybody. (= He had been forgotten by
everybody.)
interested and interesting etc
Interested, bored, excited etc say how people feel.
Interesting, boring etc describe the people or things that cause the feelings. Compare:
- I was very interested in the lesson. (NOT I ltIflS fiery interesting in the ~n.)
2
The lesson was really interesting.
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