Grade by Grade
B. Foundations of Language · Foundations: Grammar, Sentences and Punctuation

Participles and Participial Phrases

B3.2 B3.3 B3.1About 45 minutes
Learning goals
  • I can find present participles (-ing) and past participles (-ed, -en and irregular forms) used as adjectives.
  • I can tell a participle from a gerund and from a verb.
  • I can use participial phrases to add detail, with commas in the right places.
  • I can find and fix a dangling participle.

Words to know

participle
A verb form used as an adjective. Present participles end in -ing (melting snow). Past participles often end in -ed or -en (frightened cat, frozen lake).
participial phrase
A participle plus the words that go with it, working together as an adjective: Shivering in the wind, we waited for the bus.
gerund
An -ing verb form used as a noun: Skating is fun.
dangling participle
A participial phrase that has no clear word to describe, or seems to describe the wrong word: Walking to school, the snow started.

A verb wearing an adjective costume

The barking dog woke the sleeping baby.

Barking and sleeping come from verbs (bark, sleep), but here they describe nouns: which dog? the barking one. Which baby? the sleeping one. Verb forms that work as adjectives are called participles. They pack action into description, which makes your writing lively.

Remember from Grades 5 and 6

In Grade 5 you put commas around participial phrases (The bus, covered in snow, arrived late.). In Grade 6 you learned that gerunds are -ing words that act as nouns.

In Grade 7 you'll understand how participles work: what kinds there are, how they're different from gerunds, and how to use them without confusing your reader.

KindHow it's formedExamples
Present participleverb + -ingthe melting snow, a howling wind
Past participle (regular)verb + -eda frightened kitten, the painted fence
Past participle (irregular)special forma frozen lake, a broken window, a written note, fallen leaves
Perfect participlehaving + past participleHaving finished our chores, we went sledding.
Kinds of participles

One -ing word, three jobs

An -ing word can be a verb, a participle (adjective) or a gerund (noun). Look at what it's doing.

  • Verb: The snow is melting. (It follows a helping verb and shows the action.)
  • Participle: The melting snow flooded the yard. (It describes snow.)
  • Gerund: Melting the ice took all afternoon. (It names an activity and is the subject of took.)

Tip: If you can put the act of in front, it's a gerund. If it answers which one? or what kind? about a noun, it's a participle.

VERBThe snow is melting.follows a helping verb (is)PARTICIPLEThe meltingsnow flooded the yard.describes snow: which snow?GERUNDMelting the ice took all afternoon.names an activity: the act of melting
The same word, melting, does three jobs. Look at what it is doing in the sentence to decide whether it is a verb, a participle or a gerund.

Participial phrases and commas

  • At the start: comma after it. Shivering in the wind, we waited for the bus.
  • In the middle with extra information: commas around it. The old barn, built in 1902, still stands.
  • In the middle, needed to tell which one: no commas. The student wearing the blue toque is my cousin.
  • At the end, describing the subject: comma before it. We walked home, laughing all the way.
Walking to school,the snow started to fall.Was the snow walking?Walking to school,I noticed the snow starting to fall.The opening phrase describes the subject right after the comma.
An opening participial phrase describes the subject that comes right after the comma. In the top sentence that subject is the snow, so the snow seems to be walking to school.
Worked example

Let's fix a dangling participle

Fix: Walking to school, the snow started to fall.

  1. A participial phrase at the start must describe the subject of the main clause.
  2. The subject here is the snow. Was the snow walking to school? No!
  3. Fix 1: make the right person the subject: Walking to school, I noticed the snow starting to fall.
  4. Fix 2: turn the phrase into a clause: As I was walking to school, the snow started to fall.

As I was walking to school, the snow started to fall. (or Walking to school, I noticed the snow starting to fall.)

Worked example

Let's add participial phrases to a description

Improve: The moose stood in the pond. It was eating water plants. It was dripping with water.

  1. The main idea: The moose stood in the pond.
  2. It was eating water plants → participial phrase: eating water plants.
  3. It was dripping with water → participial phrase: Dripping with water. Put it at the start, where it describes the subject, the moose.
  4. Put them together with commas.

Dripping with water, the moose stood in the pond, eating water plants. Both participial phrases describe the moose.

Bored or boring?

Present and past participles mean different things.

  • -ing = causing the feeling: The movie was boring. (The movie caused boredom.)
  • -ed = having the feeling: I was bored. (I felt boredom.)

So I am boring means you make other people bored! Other pairs: exciting/excited, confusing/confused, amazing/amazed, tiring/tired.

Just for fun

Flying over the city, the houses looked tiny. Since when can houses fly? Give the phrase a real pilot: Flying over the city, we thought the houses looked tiny.

Hands-on activity

Freeze-frame descriptions

You need: a family member, a phone or tablet camera (or just a good memory), and paper.

  1. Ask your family member to do an everyday action, like stirring soup, folding laundry or tying skates. Take a photo or freeze it in your mind.
  2. Write one sentence that starts with a participial phrase: Leaning over the stove, Dad stirred the soup.
  3. Write a second sentence with a past participle phrase: The laundry, folded neatly, sat on the bed.
  4. Write a third sentence that ends with a participial phrase: My sister laced her skates, humming a song.
  5. Check each opening phrase: does it describe the subject right after the comma?

What to look for: three correctly punctuated participial phrases, none dangling.

Your turn

1

Find the participle and the noun it describes: The crackling fire kept us warm.

2

Find the participle and the noun it describes: We stepped over the fallen branches.

3

Verb, participle or gerund? Snowshoeing is my favourite winter activity.

4

Verb, participle or gerund? Snowshoeing across the field, the hikers waved at us.

5

Add the comma: Tired from the hike we went to bed early.

6

Fix the dangling participle: Running for the bus, my backpack fell open.

7

Choose: The fireworks were (amazing / amazed).

More practice: warm-up

1

Write the past participle of freeze.

2

Write the past participle of break.

3

Find the participle: the singing bird

4

Find the participle: a torn page

5

Choose: I was (confusing / confused) by the instructions.

More practice: on your own

1

Underline the participial phrase and say what it describes: The letter, written in pencil, was hard to read.

2

Combine with a participial phrase: Kiri grabbed her skates. She ran to the rink.

3

Commas or no commas? The dog sleeping on the porch belongs to our neighbour.

4

Fix the dangling participle: Having finished the test, the teacher collected our papers.

5

Identify each -ing word: Laughing loudly, my uncle is telling the story about fishing.

Challenge

1

Write a sentence that uses a perfect participle (having + past participle) correctly.

2

Explain the difference: The frightening dog barked. / The frightened dog barked.

3

Revise this paragraph using at least two participial phrases: The geese flew south. They honked loudly. They were tired from the long trip. They landed on the river.

Check your understanding

Quiz

1.

In which sentence is swimming a participle used as an adjective?

2.

What is the past participle of write?

3.

Which sentence has a dangling participle?

4.

Which is punctuated correctly?

5.

Choose the best word: The math problem was ____, so I asked for help.

6.

What job does knitting do in Knitting relaxes my grandpa?

For parents and teachers

What this lesson is about: participles (verb forms used as adjectives) and participial phrases, a Grade 7 expectation. It builds on Grade 5 comma work and Grade 6 gerunds.

How to help at home:

  • Play "verb, adjective or noun?" with -ing words you hear: The boiling water (participle), Boiling the water takes time (gerund), The water is boiling (verb).
  • Enjoy dangling participles: picture what the sentence literally says.

Common difficulties:

  • Telling participles from gerunds. Ask: is it describing a noun or naming an activity?
  • Dangling participles. The phrase at the start must describe the subject right after the comma.
  • Irregular past participles (frozen, broken, fallen, torn).
  • Mixing up bored/boring, confused/confusing.