#sticky_and_tricky Differences between Participle Clause and P | The High Speech

#sticky_and_tricky
Differences between Participle Clause and Participial Phrase

There are three types of participles in English: present, past and perfect.

1) The present participle is the base form of the verb + -ing, e.g. walking, talking, running, laughing.

2) The past participle is the base form of the verb + -d/-ed/-ied for regular verbs, e.g. walked, locked, leaned. The past participle for irregular verbs is irregular forms, e.g. brought, shaven, gone, bet.

3) The perfect participle consists of having + past participle, e.g. having done, having run, having swum, having come.

Participle Clause vs. Participial Phrase

1) Participle Clause
Any clause must have a subject, however, a participle clause does not have its own subject, but it shares the subject with the main clause. And a participle clause always modifies the subject. However, a participle clause also acts as an adverbial modifier, because it modifies the action(-s) of the subject too.

Examples:
Sitting quietly, John spent half an hour. (Present participle)
Looked at, John spent half an hour. (Past participle)
Having been verified, the tests were given back to the students. (Perfect participle)

2) Participial Phrase
A participial phrase does not have a subject but modifies it. A participial phrase acts as an attribute, modifying a noun, a pronoun or a noun phrase. A participial phrase consists of a participle + an object/complement/modifier. The participle expresses an action, while the object/complement/modifier is a direct or indirect object or a complement to that action.

Examples:
Looking through the window, John was enjoying the view. (Indirect object)
Having taken the pills, John reset the alarm. (Direct object)
Feeling well, John decided to go for a walk. (Modifier)
Having been done on time, the work was well received. (Complement)