participle

English

Etymology

From Middle English participle, from Old French participle (1388), variant of participe, from Latin participium.

Pronunciation

(UK) IPA^(key): /pɑːˈtɪsɪpəl/, /ˈpɑːtɪsɪpəl/
(US) IPA^(key): /ˈpɑɹtɪˌsɪpəl/
Audio (US) (file)

Noun

participle (plural participles)

(grammar) A form of a verb that may function as an adjective or noun. English has two types of participles: the present participle and the past participle. In other languages, there are others, such as future, perfect, and future perfect participles.

Usage notes

Contemporary English constructs the perfect, progressive and progressive perfect aspects, and the passive voice from participles and auxiliary verbs. The tense is always expressed through the auxiliary verb.

I have asked. (present tense, perfect aspect)
I am asking. (present tense, progressive aspect)
I am asked. (present tense, passive voice)

When not combined with have or be, participles are almost always adjectives and can form adjectival phrases called participial phrases. Nouns can occasionally be derived from these adjectives:

the following items
the following
the dying victims
the dying

In English, participles typically end in -ing, -ed or -en.

A present participle ending in -ing has the same form but a different function from a verbal noun called a gerund. Sometimes a present participle (adjective) is mistakenly called a gerund (noun).

Hypernyms

verbal

Hyponyms

active participle
future participle
passive participle
past participle
perfect passive participle
present participle

Derived terms

gerund-participle

Translations

verb form

Albanian: pjesore (sq) f
Arabic: اِسْم فَاعِل‎ (ar) m (ism fāʿil), اِسْم مَفْعُول‎ (ar) m (ism mafʿūl)
Armenian: դերբայ (hy) (derbay)
Asturian: participiu m
Basque: partizipio
Belarusian: дзеепрыме́тнік m (dzjejeprymjétnik), дзеяпрыме́тнік m (dzjejaprymjétnik)
Bulgarian: прича́стие (bg) n (pričástie)
Catalan: participi (ca) m
Chinese:
Mandarin: 分詞／分词 (zh) (fēncí)
Czech: příčestí (cs) n, participium n
Danish: participium n, tillægsform c
Dutch: deelwoord (nl) n
Esperanto: participo (eo)
Estonian: kesksõna (et)
Faroese: lýsingarháttur m
Finnish: partisiippi (fi)
French: participe (fr) m
Galician: participio (gl) m
Georgian: მიმღეობა (mimɣeoba)
German: Mittelwort (de) n, Partizip (de) n, Partizipium (de) n
Greek: μετοχή (el) f (metochí)
Ancient: μετοχή f (metokhḗ)
Hebrew: בֵּינוֹנִי‎ (he) m (bēnoní)
Hindi: कृदंत (hi) m (kŕdant)
Hungarian: melléknévi igenév (hu)
Icelandic: lýsingarháttur (is) m
Ido: participo (io)
Irish: rangabháil f
Italian: participio (it) m
Japanese: 分詞 (ja) (ぶんし, bunshi)
Kazakh: есімше (esımşe)
Korean: 분사 (ko) (bunsa)
Kyrgyz: атоочтук (ky) (atooçtuk)
Latin: participium (la) n
Latvian: divdabis (lv) m, particips m
Lithuanian: dalyvis (lt) m
Macedonian: партицип m (particip)
Malay: partisipel
Mongolian: үйлт нэр (üjlt ner)
Norman: participe m (Jersey)
Northern Sami: ^{(please verify)} partisihppa
Norwegian:
Bokmål: partisipp (no) n
Nynorsk: partisipp n
Old High German: teilnemunga f
Persian: وجه وصفی‎ (vaǰh-e-vasfī)
Polish: imiesłów (pl) m
Portuguese: particípio (pt)
Romanian: participiu (ro) n
Russian: прича́стие (ru) n (pričástije)
Scottish Gaelic: rann-phàirt f
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: партицип m
Roman: particip (sh) m
Slovak: príčastie n
Slovene: deležnik (sl) m
Spanish: participio (es) m
Swedish: particip (sv) n
Tagalog: pandiwari
Tajik: сифати феълӣ (sifati feʾlī)
Turkish: ortaç (tr), durum ortacı (tr), sıfat-fiil (tr), partisip (tr)
Ukrainian: дієприкме́тник (uk) m (dijeprykmétnyk)
Uzbek: sifatdosh (uz)
Vietnamese: phân từ (vi)
Walloon: pårticipe (wa) m
Welsh: rhangymeriad m
West Frisian: mulwurd