Playing its part

Present or past, it matters not.

A broken window.

The fallen leaves.

The rising sun.

The blowing wind.

All familiar objects, but how many of us know that participles are used in the above phrases, to describe the window, leaves, sun and wind?

What are participles?

Participles are words formed from verbs that function as adjectives. The two types of participles are the present participle(verb plus -ing) and past participle (verb plus –ed, -d, -t, -en or –n) .

The words broken/fallen , are the past participle forms of the verbs break and fall, and does the role of adjectives to describe a window and the leaves.

Similarly, the words rising/blowing are the present participles of the verbs rise/pass, and function as adjectives describing the sun and the wind.

Examples of participles in sentences :

The sight of the breaking icebergs was indeed rare and mindblowing.

The broken iceberg was stuck between the two rocks.