What are present participles?

We make present participles from verbs and use them as adjectives or to form the continuous tenses of the verb. We always use the ending “-ing”.

Some examples of present participles

• To paint – painting
• To run – running
• To see – seeing
• To go – going
• To return – returning
• To shout – shouting
• To fly – flying
• To tie – tying

Using present participles as adjectives

• The barking dog.
• A growing boy.
• The visiting tourists.
• The changing weather.
• Some swimming fish.
• A ringing phone.

Using present participles to form the continuous tenses of verbs

We use present participles with the auxiliary verb “be” to form continuous tenses:

• Present continuous
  • The artist is painting a picture.
  • The children are crying.
• Present perfect continuous
  • I have been talking to my friend.
  • We have been walking for hours.

• Past continuous
  • The boys were walking along the path.
  • She was waiting for a bus.
• Past perfect continuous
  • They had been laughing at the comedy.
  • Their parents had been telling them to be careful.

• Future continuous
  • I will be arriving at seven o’clock.
  • He will be going to the gym.
• Future perfect continuous
  • We will have been travelling for three days.
  • You will have been attending school all year.

For more about verb tenses, see here.

Forming present participles:

We usually form present participles by adding “-ing” to the main verb:

• read – reading
• play – playing

When the verb ends in a consonant, we often double the consonant before adding “-ing”:

• swim – swimming
• win – winning

There are exceptions to this, such as:

• visit – visiting
• listen – listening

For the moment, you probably don’t need to know the rules for such words, just to recognise the ones that are treated this way.

Note that in American English the final consonant is often not doubled. So, we get “traveling” and “canceling” for example.

When the verb ends in a silent “-e”, we drop the “-e” before adding “-ing”

• change – changing
• ride – riding

When the verb ends in “-ie”, we change the “-e” to “-y” before adding “-ing”:

• tie – tying
• lie – lying

For more about participles, see here.

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