As adverbial modifier

UNIT I INFINITIVE

VERB PHRASES

CLOSELY LINKED ACTIONS: USING TWO VERBS TOGETHER IN PHRASE.

When we want to talk about two actions or states which are closely linked in a sentence we use two

verbs which are closely linked. This structure is called a phrase. These two actions may be performed by the same person. (She stopped speaking. Davis likes to talk about horses.)

Alternatively, the actions may be performed by different people. If they are, the performer of the second action is the object of the first verb. (I don’t want them to feel I’ve slighted them. One of the group began pumping her chest to help her breath.)

The first verb needs the second verb after it because it doesn’t give enough information on its own. For example “ I want” doesn’t give enough information to be a useful statement., but “I want to talk to you” does.

In a phrase structure we can find the main verb of the structure. It is usually finite, that is it inflects for tense and agrees in number with the subject of the clause. (I wanted to come home. Lonny wants to say “sorry”. More and more people are coming to appreciate the contribution which Muslims make to our society.)

The second verb in this combination is always non-finite, which means that it doesn’t inflect for tense or change its form at all. (Castle tried to read. They had been trying to read.)

There are three non-finite forms of the verb that are used for the second verb in phrase;

- the infinitive;

- the participle;

- the gerund.

The infinitive is the non-finite form of the verb which combines the properties of the verb with those of the noun, serving as the verbal name of a process.

FORMS

Active passive

Indefinite (to) eat (to) be eaten

Continuous (to) be eating (to)be being eaten

Perfect (to) have eaten (to)have been eaten

Perfect continuous (to)have been eating (to) have been being eaten

The negative infinitive is formed by putting “not” before “to”.

Try not to be late.

I decided not to become an astronomer.

USE

Progressive infinitive (Continuous) like the progressive tenses is used for actions which are or were going at the time we are talking about.

It’s nice to be sitting here with you.

I noticed that he seemed to be smoking a lot.

The progressive infinitive (without”to”) can be used with “modal auxiliary” verbs. The meaning of the structure depends on the verbs that are used.

Why’s she so late? She can’t still be working. Of course, she may be having trouble with the car.

Perfect infinitives have the same meaning as the perfect or past tenses.

It’s good to have finished work for the day.(= It’s good when you have finished...)

She said she was sorry to have missed you.(=... that she had missed...)

I’m sorry not to have come on Thursday. (=.... that I didn’t come....)

We often use perfect infinitives to talk about “imaginary” past actions and events: things that didn’t happen.

I meant to have telephoned, but I forgot.

He was to have been the new ambassador, but he fell ill.

Perfect infinitives are often used after “seem, appear”.

I appear to have made a small mistake.

He seems to have missed the train.

Infinitive without “to” is used after modal verbs and such verbs as “let, make, see, hear, feel, watch, notice, help (in informal style) and (in a few constructions) after “have “ and “know”.

I must go now.

She lets her children stay up very late.

I made them give me the money back. I didn’t see you come in.

I heard her say that she was fed up.

Could you help me unload the car?

Have Mrs Hansen come in, please?(Mainly American).

I’ve never known him (to) pay for a drink.(Perfect tenses of “know” only).

When these verbs are used in the passive they are followed by the “to” infinitive.

He was made to pay back the money.

She was heard to say that she disagreed.

Why + infinitive (without “to”) can be used to introduce questions. The point of the question is usually to suggest that it is stupid or pointless to do something. Why not + infinitive (without “to”) introduces suggestions and advice.

Why pay more at other shops? We have the lowest prices in town.

Why stand up if you can sit down? Why sit down if you can lie down?

Why not let me lend you some money?

Why not take a holiday?

And, or, except,but, than

When two infinitive structures are joined by these words the second infinitive is used without “to”.

I’d like to lie down and go to sleep.

Do you want to have lunch now or wait till later?

We had nothing to do except (to) look at the posters outside the cinemas.

I’ll do anything but work on a farm.

It’s easier to persuade people than (to)force them.

“Rather than” is usually followed by the infinitive without “to”.

Rather than wait any more, I decided to go home by taxi.

Do

Clauses which explain the exact meaning of “do” can have the infinitive without “to”.

All I did was (to) give him a little push.

What a fire-door does is (to) delay the spread of a fire long enough for people to get out.

“to” used instead of whole sentences

Instead of repeating the whole of an infinitive expression, we can simply use the word “to”.

I went there because I wanted to.

I think he should get a job, but you can’t force him to if he isn’t ready (to).

I don’t dance much now, but I used to a lot.

However, “to” is often dropped when “want” or “like” are used in the subordinate clauses.

Come when you want.

I’ve decided to do what I like.

Come and stay as long as you like.

Split infinitive is a structure in which “to” and the rest of the infinitive are separated by an adverb.

I’d like to really understand Nietzche.

He began to slowly get up off the floor.

Split infinitive structures are quite common in English especially in an informal style. A lot of people consider them “bad style” and avoid them if possible, placing the adverb before the “to” or in end-position in the sentence.

He began slowly to get up off the floor.

However, it is not always possible to construct sentences in other ways without changing the meaning.

Your job is to really make the club a success. (here “really” intensifies the meaning of “make”).

Your job is really to make the club a success.(Here “Your job is really...” means “The real purpose of your job...”).

Active and passive infinitive with similar meaning

1. The idea of obligation can sometimes be expressed by an infinitive after a noun.

I’ve got letters to write.

These carpets are to be cleaned as soon as possible.

If the subject of the sentence is the person who has to do the action, the active infinitive is used.

I have work to do.

If the subject of the sentence is the action that has to be done (or the person or thing that the action is done to), we use the passive infinitive.

These sheets are to be washed.

This form is to be filled in in ink.

The cleaning is to be finished by mid-day.

2. In some structures (for example, after “there is”) both active and passive infinitives are possible with a similar meaning. And we use the active infinitive if we think more about the person who has to do the action than about the action itself.

There is a lot of work to do/to be done.

There are six letters to write/ to be written.

Give me the names of the people to contact/to be contacted.

3. The passive infinitives “to be seen, to be found, to be congratulated “ are common after “be”.

He was nowhere to be seen.

You are to be congratulated.

The dog was nowhere to be found.

4. Note the difference between “something/anything/nothing to do” and “something/anything/nothing to be done”.

There’s nothing to do. I’m bored.(=There are no entertainments).

There’s nothing to be done. We’ll have to buy another one. (=There’s no way of putting it right).

5. “To blame” is often used in a passive sense (meaning”responsible" for something bad that happened”).

Nobody was to blame for the accident.

FUNCTIONS

As subject

In older English, an infinitive subject could easily be put at beginning of a sentence, like any other subject.

To err is human, to forgive divine.

In modern English it is more common to begin the sentence with “it”(preparatory subject) and to put the infinitive later.

It’s easy to make mistakes (Instead ”To make mistakes is easy”).

To postpone an election due in a month’s time is not technically easy; postponement would require complex legal manoeuvres, which might take weeks.

As predicative

It is very common for one verb to be followed directly by another. This happens, for instance, if we talk about our attitude to an action; the first verb describes the attitude and the second refers to the action.

I hope to see you soon.

The negotiators failed to come to agreement.

It was bound to happen.

The parents’ wish had always been to see their eldest son the continuator of their joint scientific work

As attribute

In this function the infinitive is often used to say what will be done with something, or what effect it will have. The infinitive is translated by the attributive subordinate clause the predicate of which shows possibility or obligation, sometimes it is translated by a finite verb in the future tense.

This question will be discussed at the conference shortly to open in Moscow.

The passive infinitive in the function of an attribute retains preposition.

There was nothing to be astonished at.

This was not a matter to be easily agreed upon.

As object

They want to submit a new proposal.

They claim to be working for peace.

As adverbial modifier

Of purpose

the infinitive with “to” is used to talk about people’s purposes, the reasons why they do things.

My brother got a job to earn money for his holiday.

He started drinking to forget.

He stopped for a minute to rest.

The same idea can be expressed by using “in order to” or “so as to”.

I got up early in order to have time to pack.

We went via Worcester so as to miss the traffic jams.

He stopped for a minute in order to rest.

Of result

this infinitive has the modal meaning(very often it is preceded by the words “such...(as), enough, so..., too..., only).

This question is too difficult to be settled without further considerations.

He managed to obtain this concession from the management only to find that no one really needed it.

As an introductory element

At the beginning of a sentence the infinitive can be in the function of a subject, adverbial modifier or an introductory element. In order to translate the sentence in a proper way it is necessary to make the syntactic analysis of a sentence.

To do this work well is his aim.

To do this work well he used a new device.

To tell the truth it is not easy to do this work well.

PRACTICE

Analyse and translate the following sentences:

1. Kurds are especially happy with a US pledge last September to protect them against Baghdad.

2. Efforts to attract investment by selling Ireland abroad also have a long history.

3. British Airways said, it would install heart monitors and cardiac defibrillators devices on all its aircraft within a year, becoming the first international airline to do so.

4. Military rule and disdain for human rights have supposedly made Nigeria a country not to be visited.

5. Information comes in floods now, but we haven’t installed a way to use the brains with the capacity to filter and distill it.

6. The decision to ban export of beef and cattle from Portugal was made after a sharp increase in the number of cases last year of “mad cow” disease in cattle grown in Portugal.

7. The candidate said this morning that he was fully aware of the obstacles to be faced and the charges that would be made.

8. There are lessons to be learnt from the cold war, but the inevitability of a peaceful outcome is not one of them.

9. Most Japanese educators concede that a reliance on rote learning and cramming does great damage to creativity, and many universities are moving to include interviews and essay writing in their entrance tests.

10. A personal campaign to acquaint the farmers with the facts about this year’s agricultural price review will be launched by the Minister of Agriculture on Monday.

11. Peru plans to raise $1 billion through bond sales and loans to help the country’s struggling companies restructure debt.

12. The said tax increases to reduce government borrowing would do little to help recession hit industry or reduce unemployment.

13. Mr.Cook is not the first British Foreign Minister to arrive in office determined to change things, nor will he be the last to run up against the diplomats’ natural scepticism about his ability to do.

14. Any newly elected government can expect to be given the benefit of the doubt by the public.

15. The United Nations said that a UN delegation would visit China next month to look at what help the country needs to implement its commitments on human rights.

16. To meet the need for increasingly precise forecasts, meteorologists hope to extend their observational system until it covers every corner of the earth.

17. The chancellor in fact, was quick to warn us against raising false hopes on the basis of the new international support given for the pound.

18. The Prime Minister had told the party meeting that as a tough Prime Minister, he refused to be dictated to by any group.

19. Education standards are bound to be hit by the government’s latest round of spending cuts, the Education Secretary admitted yesterday.

20. Japan’s economic success carries inevitable political consequences, they are bound to be recognized sooner or later.

21. European Union leaders last night failed to make any breakthroughs on the future financing of the community.

22. To begin with, the cumulative effect of so many coctail and other parties amounts to a serious physical drain on the U.N. delegates; considerable stamina is required to stand up to some seven hundred social functions a year.

23. It was freely stated, to begin with, that she was little more than a figurehead, used by the politicians of her party to get back into power on a strong wave of emotion which only she could inspire.

24. To judge living standards, it is better to add to GDP the income earned by foreign assets, and to deduct from it the income paid to foreign creditors.

25. The commercial broadcasting industry convinced Americans that it was “good citizenship to consume news at regular intervals”.

26. In many respects the father of both the supersonic Concorde and the wide-bodied Airbus airliners, Henry Ziegler lived long enough to see the recent major restructuring of the French aircraft industry.

27. Behind the closed doors of homes ranging from modest apartments to mansions in Virginia, many foreign servants live in silent despair, toiling long hours for low wages but too fearful, isolated or insecure about what will happen to them to complain or breakfree, human rights advocates and investigators say.

28. The announcements of his latest trip are bound to intensify suspicions about the objectives of the Government’s maneuvers.

29. “The US economy already looks fairly bubble-like. Such an economy is bound to slow once stock prices fall, and so the base trend will be a stronger yen once Japan’s economy strengthens,” said a top official in the Finance Ministry.

30. The Chancellor of Germany said he had serious concerns that failure to reach agreement on the EU reforms could lead to complications concerning the European single currency, the euro.

INFINITIVE CONSTRUCTIONS

The Subjective Infinitive Construction (Complex Subject)

This construction is formed by means of the infinitive which follows the predicate. The predicate can be used in the Active and Passive Voice. The following verbs can be used in this construction in the passive voice. They are,so-called, reporting verbs: to report, consider, believe, think, understand, expect, allege, hear, see, feel, seem, appear, be likely to....,accept, admit, announce, assert, comment concede, explain, foresee, estimate.......

In this construction the person or thing involved in the reported opinion is put as the subject of the reporting verb.

Intelligence is assumed to be important.

He is said to have died a natural death.

She is believed to have fled to France.

If you want to say that something appears to be the case, you can use either of the verbs “seem” and “appear”. These verbs are used in the active voice. The subject is the person or thing involved in the fact that appears to be true.

She seemed to like me.

He appears to have been an interesting man.

The system appears to work impartially.

The translation of such constructions begins with the predicate, it is translated by the impersonal clause. The other part of the sentence is translated as the subordinate clause.

The delegation is reported to have left for London.

If this construction is used in the attributive subordinate clause or participial clause we can translate it as an introductory clause.

A movie which he is expected to make is an attempt to come to a mutually-beneficial agreement.

The Foreign Ministers of the European Union countries will take part in talks expected to take place in April.

Sometimes this construction can be translated by a simple sentence.

Much greater economic tasks were seen to lie ahead

If there is a negation in this construction in the translation we can use this negation in the subordinate clause.

The preliminary talks are not expected to last more than two weeks.

The action expressed by the infinitive refers to the future if the infinitive is used after the words “likely, unlikely, sure, certain”

The economic problems facing France are certain to have strong repercussions.

2. The Objective –with-the –Infinitive Construction (Complex Object)

It is formed by means of the infinitive with “to” or without “to” and a pronoun in the objective case or a noun in the nominative case. It is translated by the object clause. The first part of such construction (pronoun or noun) acts as a subject in the subordinate clause and the second part of the construction (the infinitive) acts as a predicate.

If the Government expected the tenants to take the increase lying down, they were very much mistaken.

They heard him deny it.

3. For + noun (pronoun) + infinitive

This construction can function as any part of the sentence. It is translated by the subordinate clause.

Present plans are for the Prime Minister to make a statement in the first part of the next week.

The first thing for us to do is to meet our partners.

It is not for us to decide.

Absolute Nominative Construction

It is formed by a noun and an infinitive. It is used at the end of the sentence, marked by a comma and translated by a subordinate clause with a modal meaning.

The sellers offered the buyers 5,000 tons of oil, delivery to be made in October.

PRACTICE

Analyze and translate the following sentences

1. The International Court of Justice is expected to play an increasing important role in facilitating the peaceful settlement of international legal disputes.

2. German nuclear plant operators will be expected to use the time to work at deals to cancel contracts worth millions with reprocessing centers in France and Britain.

3. The discussion is expected to focus on broad subjects: raw materials and world trade, food supplies and agriculture, prospecting, production and consumption of energy, and international financial and monetary problems.

4. The U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman noted that the pace of economic growth in the U.S. is “widely expected to moderate” this year, which the Fed would welcome.

5. The Home Secretary is expected to make a statement next week on the validity of the practice of allowing outside observers, photographers, and television cameramen to be present at the counting of the votes at a parliamentary election.

6. “... no government has ever backed demands for greater efficiency with any sort of clear statement of what exactly the police service is supposed to achieve”, a police official stated yesterday.

7. Roads have been built, and by next year every village in Egypt is supposed to have electricity laid on.

8. Foreign secretaries can be useful of course. They are supposed to manage public opinion. They have to keep the House of Commons on side.

9. True, the euro-group is likely to grow relatively stronger next year. But European financial markets have already been badly buffeted.

10. The cutback of housing programmes has been so sharp that the national campaign for the homeless reports that in the next two years no families are likely to be rehoused from the waiting list at all.

11. The Turkish economy, which had been growing at an average rate above 6 percent for the past four years, slowed and is likely to expand by only 2 percent this year.

12. Combine ethnic tensions on the fringes of the Chinese empire with regional tensions along the coast and you have good reason to believe that China is more likely to disintegrate than is commonly believed.

13. No one will refuse to pay less tax, but if they think that by this means they will bribe the electors to vote for them in large numbers, they are likely to be disappointed.

14. The euro is likely to join the dollar as a reserve currency held by central banks around the world, perhaps leading some banks to sell dollars and thereby reduce the value of the American currency.

15. Decontrol alone doesn’t constitute an adequate oil policy. It is not likely to protect the economy against temporary shortages. Nor will it significantly reduce dependence on foreign oil imports in long term.

16. Petty nations and their petty national demands are thought to be pointless at best; divisive and self-destructive at worst.

17. The epitome of Tory sleaze was Neil Hamilton, a backbench MP who was alleged to have taken a few thousand pounds to ask some questions in parliament.

18. The Minister of Economic Affairs referred today to the statement reported to have been made by the Foreign Secretary on Friday.

19. About 60 people were yesterday reported to have been arrested on subversion charges.

20. The strike, called by the region’s main political parties and labour unions, appeared to be one of the largest in the troubled provinces.

21. Turnout at the nation’s 50000 polling stations appeared to be heavy.

22. Hydrocarbons (oil) and political votality seem to go together.

23. Europe seems to be slowing down faster than most people expected.

24. A group of experts seemed to have solved a dispute about putting workers on boards that has for 25 years blocked a proposed European company statute.

25. France had what was believed to be its coldest Christmas for 83 years, and in the Jura Mountains the temperature dropped to minus 28 degrees Centigrade.

26. The meeting, which lasted just over half an hour, is understood to have taken place at the Prime Minister’s request.

27. Japan’s prime minister, is said to have taken bribes in return for favours to Nomura, Japan’s biggest securities firm.

28. U.S. officials were said to consider that uncertainty was bound to continue unless some drastic measures were taken.

29. In matters of sleaze and waste, the UN parliament is commonly said to possess within its own ranks a concentration of practical expertise rivalling any on earth.

30. The Secretary of State was said to have demanded written ground rules laying out foreign policy authority in the administration.

31. There are said to be indications that unless “new information” is obtained, the proof is unlikely to uncover sufficient evidence for legal action.

32. The police arrested a man who is stated to have been trying to sell the miniature and is said to have confessed to having stolen it. He is stated to have kept it for more than two years in the hope that the theft would be forgotten.

33. His detention without trial is claimed to have been a violation of the European Convention of Human Rights.

34. The experts were felt to have little hope of reducing the differences even if an attempt were made to bring the two parties together. Mexico’s worst mine disaster, which is feared to have killed 177 men, claimed another victim today when a distraught relative of a trapped miner ran into the gas-filled pit.

35. The warnings are now shown to have been fully justified: thousands of workers will get the sack.

36. When the Bill reaches Tory peers next week they will either reject it or amend it in a manner certain to be unacceptable to the Government.

37. The German Chancellor is known to feel that Germany has maintained a high level of security spending while many smaller European governments are cutting back their security contributions.

38. The shadow cabinet, most of it strongly opposed to the Brighton decisions, is certain to be granted full weight of its views, and backbenchers will be invited to serve on the sub-committees of the inquiry dealing with the various fields it is investigating.

39. It was unbearable to hear this man speak of friendship with Britain as if nothing of importance had happened.

40. About 1 million farmers flooded the capital to hear the prime minister caution them against pressing for more government aid at the expense of the rest of the country.

41. The Premier said he expected other delegations to support the draft resolution before it was debated and voted upon in the Central Assembly.

42. The analysts expect the next government in Turkey to continue policy reforms and drive down real interest rates.

43. The prime minister says that he wants Britain to emerge from the fringes and play a leading role in the European Union.

44. It seems that the Right Wing in the Labour and Trade union movement is not prepared to consider anyone who disagrees with them a human being.

45. In a document released today a Harvard University Professor discloses that studies he made in one medium-sized U.S. city showed mayors, police chiefs and other officials to have been on a gambling syndicate’s payroll for many years.

46. The crisis is hitting Western Europe several months later than the United States. This will react on the U.S. economy. It will tend to cause the crisis and depression to go deeper and last stronger than most economists expect.

47. The United nations General Assembly, defeating all Western opposition, declared the use of nuclear weapons to be a direct violation of the U.N.Charter.

48. The Spanish prime minister wants Spain to throw off the sense of inferiority caused by its past century’s history, and not least by the Franco period.

49. An association of lawyers says that many owners prefer their own property rather than nearby land to be swallowed by a motorway.

50. The Prime Minister has decided to get the Cabinet to make an earlier than expected decision on the budget.

51. The report calls for the monarchy in the UK to become professional and accountable.

52. The united states and Britain on Friday set a month-long deadline for Libya to surrender two suspects wanted for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing.

53. For the reform forces to pull off a majority on council, all their incumbents will have to hang onto their seats.

54. Mr Tao says it would be “technically feasible” for the Hong Kong government to declare overnight that all Hong Kong dollars held in banks and in circulation would be converted into US dollars.

55. Chips are harder for hackers to modify than software.

56. For Europe to drive forward it needs leadership.

57. For Egypt to get anywhere near its growth target, it will have to persuade Egyptians to save and foreigners to invest.

58 In these circumstances the party leaders had no plan for the Prime Minister to make a unity appeal when he attends today’s party meeting.

UNIT II PARTICIPLE

FORMS

Active Passive

Present eating being eaten

Past eaten

Perfect having eaten having been eaten

Perfect continuous having been eating having been being eaten

The present participle is the non-finite form of the verb which combines the properties of the verb with those of the adjective and adverb. The past participle is the non-finite form of the verb which combines the properties of the verb with those of the adjective. Present and past participles can be put together to make Perfect participles. The perfect continuous forms are very rarely used.

USE

1. Participles are used with auxiliary verbs to make progressive, perfect and passive verb forms.

It was raining when I got home.

I’ve forgotten your name.

You’ll be told as soon as possible.

2. Participles can also be used like adjectives to say more about people or things.

This is a new type of self-winding watch.

I’ve got a broken heart.

Most of the people invited didn’t turn up.

3. Participles can combine with other words to form “adjective clauses”.

Who’s the fat man sitting in the corner?

Most of the people invited to the party didn’t turn up.

4. Participles can also be used rather like adverbs, to tell us, for example, how or why something happened.

She went running out of the room.

Deeply shocked, I decided never to speak to her again.

5. Participles can combine with other words to form “adverb clauses”.

Having lost all my money I went home.

Rejected by all his friends, he decided to become a monk.

When present participles are used like adjectives or adverbs, they have similar meanings to active verbs. (A self-winding watch is a watch that winds itself). Past participles almost always have passive meanings in these cases(a broken heart is a heart that has been broken; rejected corresponds to he had been rejected). However, there are a few past participles that can be used as adjectives with an active meaning. (fallen rocks, vanished civilizations, a retired general, a grown-up daughter, an escaped prisoner, faded colours).

6. To say how we feel about something we can use the past participles “interested, bored, excited....”.

I was very interested in the lesson.

I didn’t enjoy the party because I was bored.

To talk about the person or thing that makes us feel interested, bored, etc, we use present participles “interesting, boring, exciting,etc”.

I thought the lesson was quite interesting.

Sheila’s party was pretty boring.

7.A few participles change their meaning according to their position.

The people concerned means the people who were affected by what was happening.

A concerned expression means a worried expression.

The people involved means the same as the people concerned.

An involved expression means a complicated expression.

The solution adopted means the solution chosen.

An adopted child means a child who lives with people who are not his biological parents.

8. Grammars sometimes say that much should be used instead of very before past participles. In fact that depends on the particular case. A past participle often refers to a state or quality, not an action, for instance, a frightened animal, a tired child, a complicated problem..... In these cases it’s normal to use “ very “: a very frightened animal, a very tired child..... But when the past participle refers to an action, for instance, when it is part of the main verb of the sentence, it is sometimes necessary to use much or very much

Britain’s trade position has been much/very much weakened by inflation.

Very is common even in the verb phrases with verbs which express personal reaction.

We were all very shocked by the news about Tony.

. I was very amused by Miranda’s attitude.

9. By is used after the past participles in the sentence to introduce the agent (the person or thing that does the action).

Most of the damage was caused by your sister.

When a past participle is used like an adjective to describe a state of mind, not an action by is not used. The correct preposition depends on the adjective.

She was frightened by a mouse and ran into the room.

I’ve always been terribly frightened of dying.

The kids were so excited by the noise that they couldn’t get to sleep.

I am excited about the possibility of going to the States.

I was annoyed by the way she spoke to me.

I’m annoyed with you.

FUNCTIONS

As attribute

When we put a participle before a noun it usually expresses some more permanent characteristic: it is more like an adjective than a verb. A participle placed after the noun often has the same “identifying” function as a relative clause. Compare:

The only place left = the only place that was left

The people taking part = the people who were taking part.

“ Those ” is often used with a participle. E.g. Those taking part = the people taking part.

Those selected = the people or things selected.

In expressions like “ the people invited” or “ a crying woman ” the participles are used in the function of an attribute, they give more information about the nouns they are connected with. Participles used in this way can be put together with other words to make adjectival participle clauses.

Most of the people invited to the reception were old friends.

There’s a woman crying her eyes out over there.

These participle clauses are like relative clauses. Instead of the people invited we could say the people who had been invited; instead of a woman crying her eyes out we could say a woman who’s crying her eyes out.

Adjectival participial clauses can only be used to talk about actions that happen around the same time as the main verb.

Can you see the girl dancing with your brother?

Anybody touching that wire will get an electric shock.

When there is a time difference between the actions of the two verbs, participles cannot usually be used.

Do you know anybody who has lost a cat?

I want to talk to the person who broke that cup.

Because of this, perfect participles (having seen, having told...) are never possible in adjectival clauses.

After a noun which refers to something “definite” (a particular person, thing, group...) a participle clause usually has a progressive meaning.

I like the girl sitting on the right.(=... who is sitting...)

The men working on the site were in some danger.(= ... who were working....)

To express a non-progressive meaning, use a relative clause.

The boy who brings the milk has been ill.

The man who threw the bomb was arrested.

As adverbial modifier

When participles are used as adverbial modifiers in the sentence they say more about the action of the verb, or about idea expressed by the sentence as a whole.

Not knowing what to do, I telephoned the police. (= Because I didn’t know what to do...)

Putting down my newspaper, I walked over to the window and looked out. (= After I had put down....)

It rained for two weeks on end, completely ruining our holiday. (=...so that it completely ruined our holidays...).

In –ing clauses stative verbs usually suggest the idea of reason or cause. (Stative verbs are verbs which refer to actions or states that go on for a long time or for ever; for example, live, feel, know, be, have. They are contrasted with the dynamic verbs, which refer to actions or events which clear beginnings and ends; for example, go, cut, drive, put, ruin.... many stative verbs are rarely used in progressive tenses, but the –ing form can be used in participle clauses).

Being unable to help in any other way, I gave her some money.

Not wishing to continue my studies, I decided to become a dress designer.

Feeling rather tired, I telephoned and said I couldn’t come.

Living in the country, we had few amusements.

Adverbial clauses are common with perfect participles.

Having failed to qualify as a doctor, I took up teaching.

Having finished all my letters, I had a drink and went out.

Normally the subject of a participle clause is the same as the subject of the main clause in a sentence.

My wife had a long talk with Sally, explaining why she didn’t want the children to play together. (My wife is the subject of explaining).

However there are some very common expressions which break this rule.

Generally speaking, men can run faster than woman. (It is not the men who “speaks generally” in this sentence).

Broadly speaking, dogs are more faithful to man than cats.

Judging from his expression, he’s in a bad mood.

Taking everything into consideration, they ought to be given another chance.

Participle clauses can be used after the words after, before, since, when, while, whenever, once, until, on, as.

After talking to you I always feel better.

She’s been quite different since coming back from America.

When telephoning London numbers from abroad, dial 1 not 01.

On being introduced to somebody, a British person often shakes hands.

She struck me as being a very nervy person.

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