Contributor: Linda Price. Lesson ID: 10115
What do a horror film, animated fish, and war film have in common? Though they were made in the past, they contain present participles. Use your video-watching and writing skills to learn participles!
The Shining is a psychological horror film directed by Stanley Kubrick and starring Jack Nicholson. Finding Nemo is a computer-animated film starring Alexander Gould as Nemo. Saving Private Ryan is a war film with an all-star cast by Stephen Spielberg. The underlined word in each of these film titles is an example of a present participle. What function do participles play in our writing and speech?
Participles are verbs used as adjectives.
Remember, adjectives are words used to describe nouns. Adding -ing or -ed as a suffix on a verb turns the verb into a participle that can be used to describe a person, place, or thing.
This seems simple enough, so continue on to the Got It? section for some practice.