Participial Phrases

Today we are going to look at VERBS that function as ADJECTIVES.

LET'S REVIEW: When we did tree diagramming, sometimes we would come upon nouns that functioned as adjectives, or pronouns that functioned as adjectives. Using a part of speech to function as another part of speech is quite common, in fact.

Let's take a moment to review verbs. "My dog was wagging its tail." In this sentence, "was wagging" is the verb phrase. "My dog has chewed through my shoelaces." In this sentence, "has chewed" is the verb phrase.

NOW FOR THE NEW CONCEPTS: Technically, in the 2 sample sentences above, "wagging" is a present participle and "chewed" is a past participle. Sometimes you could take that participle and use it as an adjective to form a participial phrase. This is an excellent way to add variety to your writing and, also, to sentence combine.

Here are a couple examples of participial phrases:

1. Wagging its tail, my dog begged for some hamburger.
--Here, "wagging" is a V:Adj. "Wagging its tail" describes "dog," so it's a participial phrase.

2. I need to replace my shoelaces, eaten through by my puppy.
--Here "eaten" is a V:Adj. "Eaten through by my puppy" describes "shoelaces," so it's a participial phrase.

Participial phrases, since they function as adjectives, are not part of your simple subject or simple predicate. Be careful not to confuse the simple predicate with the participial phrase.

For today's assignment, identify the participial phrase in each sentence.

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