Level 6 Chapter 5 - Participles - Part 2

select the answer from the choices given

PARTICIPLES

Participles are verb forms that are used as adjectives or to tell more about the sentence as a whole.

Present Participle:
running, living, going, seeing, working, etc.

Perfect Participle:
having run, having lived, having seen, etc.

Examples:

Ben WAS SITTING on the train. He had a fantastic idea.

SITTING on the train, Ben had a fantastic idea.

This tells you what the subject was doing at the time something happened. It is as if the first few words were omitted in the sentence:.

While he was SITTING on the train, Ben had a fantastic idea.

or

While SITTING on the train, Ben had a fantastic idea.

It is used for explanations:

KNOWING he had a gun in his pocket, I moved very slowly.

Negatives are frequent:

NOT KNOWING Jane was on holiday, I kept trying to call her.

If the explanation precedes the event the perfect form is used:

HAVING READ the newspaper, Ed knew about the merger.


NOT HAVING had time to study them, we couldn't recommend the plans.

The subject of the sentence and the subject of the participle are
generally the same, and the participle goes next to the noun it modifies.

Avoid sentences like these:

Walking down the street, a car almost hit me.( I was
walking, not the car!)

Having arrived late, there was no food left. ( The food
didn't arrive late!)

In this exercise there are examples where the neither the present participle nor the past is correct: It is uo to you to decide...

Look out for examples like:

HAVING HEARD his explanation for his presence in the office at such a late hour, the police allowed him to leave.

and

When THEY HAD HEARD his explanation for his presence in the office at such a late hour, the police allowed him to leave.

After "when" the perfect participle form cannot be used.

Sometimes a comma makes all the difference:

Smith, having finished his work, went home.


Smith finished his work and went home.

(Note "and")