Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[0915reg]

Hello All:

How to use Participles as Adjectives?

For example, the selected person, losing keys ... What are the rules?
Are all verbs ending with -ing or -ed form can be adjectives?

Please tell me where I could find this kind of resource?
Thanks for help!

[CP]

Yes, participles can be used as adjectives.

Your example of selected person is right, meaning the person who has been selected. But for keys, you would say lost keys, that is, keys that have been lost, not losing keys, since keys can't lose anything.

When you use present participles, the meaning can change. If you talk about the selecting person, you mean the person who does the selecting. If you say losing argument, you mean the argument that is going to lose.

Notice that the past participle doesn't always end in -ed, although is does for regular verbs. You have to check the principal parts of the verb (bare infinitive, simple past, past participle) to see what to use.

Hence, regular verbs: walk, walked, walked; taste, tasted, tasted; like, liked, liked.

Irregular verbs: run, ran, run; lose, lost, lost; sleep, slept, slept; sell, sold, sold; drive, drove, driven; eat, ate, eaten.

Present participles always end in -ing (as far as I know). They are formed by taking the bare infinitive and adding -ing, sometimes also doubling a consonant: run, running, a running feud; eat, eating, an eating disorder; sleep, sleeping, a sleeping tiger.

I don't know resources to help you, but probably others who read this site will. Good luck!
_________________
You live a new life for every new language you speak. -Czech proverb

[0915reg]

sorry about the bad example #2...
"losing keys" is odd.

Following are another examples:
1) A great number of frightened investors took their money out of the stock market.
2) I am excited about my company's new advertising campaign.
3) I found this broken plate in the kitchen cupboard.

When to use -ing and when to use -ed?