Sentence Fluency: Using Participial Phrases

Lesson Plan - Get It!

Audio:

When you write, you want your sentences to flow like a river. They can build in intensity like the rapids over the rocks, but try to keep them flowing smoothly.

You can do this if you know how to use some good writing strategies!

One of these strategies is to use participial phrases to expand your sentences.

Before you continue, if you overlooked or would like to review the previous Sentence Fluency lessons, find them in the right-hand sidebar under Related Lessons.

• First, what is a participle?

Watch 2 Minute Teacher - Participles, from by Cody Walker, to find out!

A participle is a verb that is used as an adjective in a sentence.

A participial phrase contains the participle and any modifiers that go with it.

• Take out a piece of paper and a pencil.
• Write down the definition of participle and participial phrase.
• Write one example of each.

A participial phrase may come before the noun it modifies:

• Dedicated to his task, their teacher tried to help them.

Or, it may come after the noun:

• The students, studying the lesson carefully, tried to understand the purpose of the Civil War.

You may have noticed the participial phrase is separated from the sentence with commas. That's important because it's not a necessary part of the sentence but is there to give more information.

Remember, a participial phrase begins with a verb form that ends in -ed or -ing and comes before or after the noun it modifies.

• Are you ready to practice finding participial phrases?

Head over to the Got It? section!