Present Participle vs Past Participle
Present participle and Past participle are two terms used in English grammar that show some difference between them when it comes to their application. Present participle and past participle are both used in the formation of various tense forms such as present perfect tense and past perfect tense and other present, past and future forms. It is important to know that past participle is used in the formation of present, past and future perfect tense forms, and the present participle forms are used in the formation of several present, past and future tense forms. Present participle is used for the construction of continuous tenses. Past participle is used for the construction of simple perfect tenses. This is the main difference between the two terms present participle and past participle.
What is a Past Participle?
Past participle is generally constructed by adding –ed to the end of the verb. For example,
Chew – chewed
Work – worked
However, this changes when it comes to the irregular verbs. Irregular verbs have their own past and past participle forms which need to be learnt by heart. For example,
Bring – brought
Drink -drunk
Past participle is used for the construction of simple perfect tenses. Simple perfect tenses are present, past and future perfect tenses. Look at the two sentences given below.
Francis has returned from America yesterday.
Angela has given a lot of money to Robert.
In both the sentences, you can find that the past participle form of the verb ‘return’ is used as ‘returned’, and the past participle form of the verb ‘give’ is used as ‘given’ respectively. You can cite other examples too.
She had looked at the sky and said.
Robert had read the book long ago.
In both the sentences given above, you can see that the past participle forms of the verbs ‘look’ and ‘read’ are rightly employed respectively. It is interesting to note that the past participle forms are added to either ‘has’ or ‘had’ as the case may be. Here is an example for future perfect.
I will have prepared the equipment by tomorrow evening.
In other words, in the case of present perfect tense the auxiliary verb ‘has’ is used along with the past participle form of the verb, and in the past perfect tense the auxiliary verb ‘had’ is used along with the past participle form of the verb. Then, in the future perfect tense, the past participle of the verb is used after will + have.
What is a Present Participle?
Present participle is constructed by adding –ing to the verb. Look at the following examples.
Walk – walking
Cook – cooking
Bring- bringing
Here, there is no difference between regular and irregular verbs.
Present participle is used with present, past, and future continuous tenses, as well as present, past, and future perfect continuous tenses.
They are cooking dinner. (present continuous)
We were watching the match (past continuous)
She will be singing on the stage by 10 a.m tomorrow. (future continuous)
She has been waiting for him since 8. (present perfect continuous)
They had been cooking for two hours when he arrived. (past perfect continuous)
Sheela will have been dancing for six hours by two o’clock. (future perfect continuous)
What is the difference between Present Participle and Past Participle?
• Present participle is used for the construction of continuous tenses.
• Past participle is used for the construction of simple perfect tenses.
• Past participle is used with past, present and future perfect tenses.
• Past participle is generally constructed by adding –ed. For irregular verbs, there are different forms of the past participle.
• Present participle is constructed by adding –ing to the verb.
• Present participle is used with continuous or progressive tenses.