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Participles and Participial Phrases - Printable English Worksheets - Wayground

Participles and Participial Phrases

10 questions

8th - 8th Grade

English

This Grade 8 English grammar worksheet gives students focused practice identifying participles, recognizing complete participial phrases, and determining which nouns those phrases modify. Across 10 multiple-choice questions, students examine participles such as “shivering,” “sobbing,” and “cascading,” distinguish full phrases such as “clogged with dog hair” and “frozen over all winter,” and connect each phrase to the noun it describes. Use this free printable worksheet with an answer key for guided practice, independent work, or a quick grammar check. Its progression from locating individual participles to identifying longer phrases and their modifying nouns helps students apply the skill in complete sentences, including phrases at the beginning, middle, and end of a sentence. The multiple-choice format lets teachers quickly see whether students can identify the grammatical element and its relationship to the sentence.

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Participles and Participial Phrases

Total questions: 10

Name
Class
Date
1.
What is the participle in the following sentence?
Shivering, the couple ran out of the rain and into the house.
a)
shivering
b)
couple
c)
into
d)
house
2.
What is the participle in the following sentence?
The sobbing child held his injured knee.
a)
The
b)
sobbing
c)
child
d)
held
3.
What is the participle in the following sentence?
The cascading waterfall poured down over the rocks.
a)
waterfall
b)
rocks
c)
over
d)
cascading
4.
What is the participial phrase in the following sentence?
Sweeping across the night sky, the bats hunted their prey.
a)
Sweeping across the night sky,
b)
the bats hunted 
c)
their prey.
5.
What is the participial phrase in the following sentence?
The water drained slowly in the pipe clogged with dog hair.
a)
The water drained slowly
b)
slowly in the pipe clogged
c)
clogged with dog hair.
6.
What is the participial phrase in the following sentence?
The horse trotting up to the fence hopes that you have an apple or carrot.
a)
The horse trotting up to the fence
b)
trotting up to the fence
c)
hopes that you have an apple
d)
or carrot.
7.
What is the participial phrase in the following sentence?
The lake, frozen over all winter, was finally thawing.
a)
The lake, frozen
b)
was finally
c)
frozen over all winter
d)
thawing.
8.
What noun is the participial phrase modifying?
Searching the glove compartment, Evangeline looked for her sunglasses.
a)
sunglasses
b)
looked
c)
compartment
d)
Evangeline
9.
What noun is the participial phrase modifying?
Quickly checking over his answers, Patrick handed in his test just before time ran out.
a)
Patrick
b)
answers
c)
test
d)
ran
10.
What noun is the participial phrase modifying?
Sweeping across the night sky, the bats hunted their prey.
a)
night
b)
sky
c)
bats
d)
prey
Answer Key

Participles and Participial Phrases

Total questions: 10

1.
a) shivering
2.
b) sobbing
3.
d) cascading
4.
a) Sweeping across the night sky,
5.
c) clogged with dog hair.
6.
b) trotting up to the fence
7.
c) frozen over all winter
8.
d) Evangeline
9.
a) Patrick
10.
c) bats

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FAQs

What does the Participles and Participial Phrases worksheet cover?

This Grade 8 worksheet uses 10 multiple-choice questions to help students identify individual participles, recognize complete participial phrases, and determine the nouns those phrases modify. Students analyze sentence examples such as “Sweeping across the night sky” and “Searching the glove compartment” rather than simply memorizing a definition.

How can I use this worksheet to teach participles and participial phrases?

Begin by modeling how to locate the participle in a sentence, then show students how surrounding words can form a complete participial phrase. Guide the class through an item such as “The horse trotting up to the fence,” asking which words belong to the phrase and which noun it describes before students complete the remaining multiple-choice questions independently.

What mistakes should I watch for when students complete this worksheet?

Students may choose the noun or main verb instead of the participle, as in the questions about “sobbing” and “cascading.” They may also select only part of a phrase, such as “frozen,” rather than “frozen over all winter,” or identify the object of the phrase instead of the noun being modified, such as choosing “sunglasses” instead of “Evangeline.”

How do I assign and grade this participles worksheet?

The worksheet is available as a printable PDF and as a digital quiz on Wayground, and it includes a complete answer key for checking the 10 multiple-choice responses. Printable submissions can be graded by scanning student work with the Wayground for Teachers app.

How can I differentiate this participles and participial phrases worksheet for my students?

Use the worksheet’s Advanced Settings to adjust font spacing, choose a larger font size, enable a dyslexia-friendly font, or translate the worksheet into another language. These options can make the sentence examples and answer choices easier to read while students identify participles, complete phrases, and their modifying nouns.

Where can I find more worksheets like this on Wayground?

Wayground offers a comprehensive collection of free printable worksheets and practice problems across subjects, with downloadable PDFs and answer keys to support mastery of essential skills and concepts. Browse more resources at https://wayground.com/en-us/worksheets.

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