Past/Present Participles

Present and Past Tense Participles

​Verbs vs. Participles

Verbs either illustrate an action, such as "walk" or a state of being, such as "is" and "were."

• ​The ball rolled down the street.

• John is waving at the car.

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Participles ending with -ing appear without a helping verb before them and help describe nouns.

• ​The rolling ball was too fast to catch.

• ​The waving flag made it easy to see where we needed to go.

Multiple Choice

Is "crying" being used as a verb or participle?

The parents were awoken by the crying baby.

• Verb

• Participle

Multiple Choice

Is "crying" being used as a verb or participle?

The baby was crying in the backseat.

• Verb

• Participle

Multiple Choice

Identify the present participle

John removed the burning marshmallow from the fire as it started to melt.

• removed

• fire

• burning

• john

Multiple Choice

Identify the present participle

The party was interrupted by the banging noise.

• interrupted

• banging

• party

• baby

Multiple Choice

Which sentence uses the word "playing" as a participle?

• The boys were playing in the park.

• The playing boys were happy to be at the park together.

Multiple Choice

Which sentence uses "jumping" as a participle.

• The jumping cricket hid in the bushes.

• The cricket was jumping into the bushes to hide.

Multiple Choice

Identify the past participle

The finished homework was sitting on her desk before school.

• school

• sitting

• finished

• before

Multiple Choice

Identify the past participle

The cooked burger is sitting on the plate outside.

• sitting

• cooked

• plate

• outside

Multiple Choice

Identify the past participle

We went home after the finished movie.

• finished

• home

• went

• after

Multiple Choice

Identify the participial phrase.
Preparing for the weather, Meg grabbed her raincoat and rain boots.

• Preparing for the weather
• grabbed her raincoat
• grabbed her raincoat and rain boots

Multiple Choice

Identify the participle phrase

Looking at the time, Jack realized he was late for the party.

• Jack realized he was late

• Looking

• Looking at the time

• was late

Multiple Choice

Identify the participle phrase

Running to the bus, Mark tripped on the curb and hurt himself.

• Mark tripped on the curb

• running to the bus

• tripped

• hurt himself

Multiple Choice

Identify the participle phrase

Jack, finished with his meal, went to work on his homework.

• went to work

• Jack

• work on his homework

• finished with his meal