Participles everywhere?

Question

I just find the topic about participles to be very hard to grasp, there are many different ways to use them and I really don't know if my sentences are made up correctly. For example:

"He has stood many times on the boat, trying to threat film into his camera."

Here the comma is important, that "trying" doesn't belong to "boat" but rather to "He". Here the trying could be expanded with the word "while"

"He has stood many times on the boat built by the best engineer in town."

Here without comma "built" refers to boat, and here it functions as an relative clause?!

"He was flying catching the ball with his teeth"

I don't know whether this is correct or not. I thought that "flying catching" is the same as "flying while catching".

So how do you know whether a participle is used as a relative clause, adjective phrase (for the main clause) or as some while etc. time thing?
And how do I know where I can put participles? It seems to me that you can put them anywhere :/

I'm confused!
Thank you in advance!

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

AnonymousHe has stood many times on the boat, trying to thread film into his camera."Here the comma is important, that "trying" doesn't belong to "boat" but rather to "He". Here the trying could be expanded with the word "while"

I don't think the comma is so important: 'trying' is critical to what he is doing on the boat.

Anonymous"He has stood many times on the boat built by the best engineer in town."Here without comma "built" refers to boat, and here it functions as an relative clause?!

Yes, and it would also if there were a comma.

Anonymous"He was flying catching the ball with his teeth"I don't know whether this is correct or not

It's not.

AnonymousI thought that "flying catching" is the same as "flying while catching".

Yes, but you have to say that.

AnonymousSo how do you know whether a participle is used as a relative clause, adjective phrase (for the main clause) or as some while etc. time thing? And how do I know where I can put participles? It seems to me that you can put them anywhere :/

Too big a topic! You need to explore and experience English much more.

CalifJim · Answer

AnonymousAnd how do I know where I can put participles?

Here are a few of the basics.

1. A single participle can go before a noun as a modifier. your smiling face, the waxing moon, a packed crate

2. An adjectival participle clause can go after a noun as a modifier. This is a reduced relative clause. The reduction is accomplished by removing the relative word (who, which, that) and a form of be (is, are, was, were, ...)
The relative word usually begins with 'wh' and the most common form of be is is, pronounced 'iz', so this kind of relative clause reduction is sometimes called Whiz-Deletion.

a woman who is waiting for the train > a woman waiting for the train
the treasure which was hidden in the castle > the treasure hidden in the castle
the flowers which are growing in her garden > the flowers growing in her garden

Note that if the reduction leaves only the participle, the participle is almost always moved so it is before the noun, putting it in category 1 above.

the treasure which was hidden > ~~the treasure hidden~~> the hidden treasure

On the other hand, if there is more than just the participle left after reduction, it cannot be moved so it is before the noun. Thus, the growing in her garden flowers is ungrammatical.

3. A so-called adverbial participle clause usually goes at the beginning or end of a finite clause. Conceptually, it expresses a second predication made of the subject, and the possible relationships between the two predications are many and various.

Tom made a lot of money gambling. (a. Tom made a lot of money. b. Tom gambled.)
How did he make the money? By gambling.
Feeling unwell, Susan skipped work today. (a. Susan felt unwell. b. Susan skipped work today.)
Why did she skip work? Because she felt unwell.

Note that, strictly speaking, these participle clauses do not modify nouns. It is not the Tom who is gambling that we're talking about in the first example, nor the money which is gambling for that matter, and it is not that particular Susan who is feeling unwell that we're talking about in the second example (as opposed to another Susan who is feeling fine).

CJ

Anonymous · Answer

Thank you for clearing that up a little (hope this sentence makes sense)
The problem is that I understand the meaning of these participle sentences or idioms, but it seems to me that there are so many different participle phrases english people use, that I will never be able to speak fluently without thinking about all the "ings" and "ed"s. Like I don't know how to put these sentences together when there is new context or other verbs are needed, like:

"I saw him yelling at the birds"
"I liked him yelling at the birds"
"I enjoyed him yelling at the birds"

The first one sounds okay, but the next somehow weird. For example is "him yelling" a relative clause or is it used in context with the word "enjoy" Or are all sentences wrong?

Do you have any tips on learning (haha or how to learn <= see another example of my catastrophic abilites) participle phrases including objects, verbs and stuff (and onther example: "phrases including..." hope that was correct)

And now I'm going to register to your forum!

CalifJim · Answer

Anonymousit seems to me that there are so many different participle phrases ~~english people~~ English speakers use that I will never be able to speak fluently

Participle clauses are actually the mark of the written language more than of the spoken language. In ordinary conversation you will find far fewer uses of participle clauses.

AnonymousI saw him yelling at the birds

Sentences like this do come up in ordinary conversation, however. This has to do more with what we call "catenative verbs", and English has a lot of them. A catenative construction consists of a main verb and a secondary verb. The main verb is conjugated the same as any main verb. The secondary verb is one of four non-finite forms: bare infinitive (take), full infinitive (to take), -ing form (taking), or -en form (taken). The main verb governs which of these four forms are permissible. Whenever you learn a verb that can be used as the main verb in a catenative construction, you must learn which of the forms are allowed with that verb.

For example, avoid and enjoy take an -ing form: They avoided_V1 driving_V2 too fast.
ask and promise take a full infinitive: Tom asked to leave. I promised to help them.
And so on. Each verb is different.
________________________

Some of these constructions have only the two verbs; others include an intervening NP (noun phrase). There are two examples of the first type above. Here are examples with an intervening NP:

The teacher made the students read three chapters.
Main verb: made
Second verb: read (bare infinitive)
Intervening NP: the students

Steve persuaded Jill to join the computer games club.
Main verb: persuaded
Second verb: to join (full infinitive)
Intervening NP: Jill

Strictly speaking, none of these constructions have much to do with "participle clauses" of the types discussed in previous posts above. You need to Google "catenative verbs" and find out all you can about them online. We can't write a grammar textbook here. This will take some time, but you can't learn everything in one day.

AnonymousI'm going to register to your forum!

Great idea!

CJ

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