Past Participial Phrases

Once again, imagine Bob, the subject of our sentence:

• Bob watched the movie.

Now let's add some information about Bob by adding a past participial phrase.

• Exhausted, Bob watched the movie.
• Soaked from the rain, Bob watched the movie.
• Frightened by his pretty date, Bob watched the movie.
• Preoccupied by his work, Bob watched the movie.

Past participial phrases start with a past participle. A past participle is the "had tense" of a verb. In other words, it's the verb tense you use after using the word "had."

• Nine times out of ten, the "had tense" of a verb is the same as the past tense.
• However, for a large handful of verbs (called irregular verbs), the "had tense" is different from the past tense.

Can you spot the irregular verbs in the following table?

Verb	Past Tense	Past Participle ("had tense")
study	studied	had studied
paint	painted	had painted
wash	washed	had washed
eat	ate	had eaten
see	saw	had seen

 

Like appositive phrases and present participial phrases, past participial phrases can be placed at the beginning, middle, or end of a sentence:

• Exhausted from his workout, Bob watched the movie.
• Bob, exhausted from his workout, watched the movie
• Bob watched the movie, exhausted from his workout.

Typically, past participial phrases are used to describe subjects who have been affected by something or someone else.

• Roberto, thrown overboard, struggled in the water,
• My dog, shot by the burglars, whimpered in the corner.
• Confused by the assignment, Maria asked the teacher for help.
• Cheered by the news, the crowd applauded.

Instructions for the Quiz

Identify the underlined phrase. You are given two choices:

present participial past participial

Remember:

If the underlined phrase starts with a present participle (an "-ing verb") the answer is present participial.

If the underlined phrase starts with a past participle (the "had tense" of a verb) the answer is past participial.

Also, keep in mind:

• Present participial phrases typically describes a secondary action—an action that the subject of the sentence is doing at the same time as he/she/it is doing the main verb.
• Past participial phrases typically describe how the subject of the sentence has been affected by something or someone else.

Quiz