An action that happens simultaneously with an action in the main clause.Ĭhris ran into his best friend while he was picking up groceries.Future Progressive: He will be getting dressed in 20 minutes.Įach of these forms is correct in terms of the present participle rules however, there are other rules to consider when using present participles clauses.Past Progressive: He was getting dressed an hour ago.Present Progressive: He is getting dressed.They appear in three different scenarios, present progressive, past progressive, and future progressive tense. At its core, when you add an – ing to the base of the verb (that is also a subject), you will create a present participle. Present Participle ClausesĪ present participle clause has many jobs. In the case of participle clauses, there are certain forms (like past participle clauses), that allow the use of passive voice. The passive voice usually uses more words, can be vague, and requires too many prepositional phrases to move the writing forward. Passive voice the subject receives the action. Active voice is the preferred form in writing, which is when the subject of the sentence is performing the action. There is one more thing we should cover, and that’s the difference between active and passive forms. A participle is a word that is derived from a verb but can function as an adjective or part of a verb phrase to create a verb tense.Ī participle will use a verb (like jumping) but will assume a different role in the clause for jumping to conclusions.

Before we dig into all of the different forms of participles, we should probably define them first.

What is a participle