In grammar lessons, you\u2019ve probably heard the terms \u201cverb participle\u201d and \u201cverb tense.\u201d You won\u2019t often use these terms in everyday English conversation, and you probably won\u2019t need to use terms like these on the TOEFL either.<\/p>\n
But understanding the difference between verb tense and participle will definitely help you comprehend complex English sentences in TOEFL Reading. \u00a0And mastering these two grammar concepts will boost your TOEFL Writing and Speaking skills too.<\/p>\n
The term \u201cparticiple” refers to a root verb that has its form changed, either by adding \u2013ing<\/em> to the end of the verb, or by changing the verb to the same form it would have in past tense. (This involves adding \u2013ed to the end of the verb, unless the verb is irregular.) <\/em>A participle that has the same form as a past tense verb is called a past<\/em> participle. A participle verb that ends in \u2013ing<\/em> is called a present participle<\/em>.<\/p>\n But a \u200bparticiple\u200b isn’t the\u00a0\u200bonly<\/em>\u200b grammatical function that change a verb’s form in this way.\u00a0\u200bThese verb forms you see in participle verbs can also occur in\u00a0tensed<\/em>\u200b verbs\u200b. A verb\u00a0\u200btense<\/em>\u200b indicates when the action is taking place\u2014in the past, present or future.<\/p>\n A verb\u00a0\u200bparticiple<\/em>\u200b does not indicate the time frame of an action. In fact, participle verbs don\u2019t focus on action at all. When a verb is put in its participle form, it actually functions as an \u200badjective<\/em>\u200b that describes a noun. A present participle verb with\u00a0\u200b-ing<\/em>\u200b describes a noun by characterizing the kind of thing that it does.<\/p>\n For instance, in the phrase “a racing horse,”\u00a0\u200bthe participle verb\u00a0\u200bracing<\/em>\u200b acts as an adjective, characterizing the noun\u00a0\u200bhorse<\/em>\u200b as a horse that races. And again, you can use this participle to refer to any time frame. You can say you had a racing horse in the past, or that you have a racing horse right now, or that you plan to buy a racing horse in the future.<\/p>\n If you use a past participle verb, then the verb acts as an adjective to describe a noun in terms of how that noun is treated or what is done to the noun. Thus, “a raced horse” describes a horse that is raced against by other things. If you tell someone your horse is a raced horse, people will immediately\u00a0understand that other things\u2014probably other horses\u2014race\u00a0\u200bagainst<\/em>\u200b your horse in competitions. To give an example with an irregular verb, someone who lost their job would say that they were a paid worker in the past, a currently employed person could say they are a paid worker right now, and a person who plans on getting a job can say they\u2019ll be a paid worker in the future.<\/p>\n The ability to use verb tense and verb participle together in writing and speech shows great fluency in English. This kind of fluent verb form use can help you get a top score on the TOEFL. Understanding the difference between adjectival participle verbs and tensed verbs also makes it easier to understand reading passages and speech that use both types of verb form. And as an added bonus, mastery of these two forms helps a lot with sentence correction exercises in other English language standardized tests such as the ACT, SAT, GRE, and GMAT.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In grammar lessons, you\u2019ve probably heard the terms \u201cverb participle\u201d and \u201cverb tense.\u201d You won\u2019t often use these terms in everyday English conversation, and you probably won\u2019t need to use terms like these on the TOEFL either. But understanding the difference between verb tense and participle will definitely help you comprehend complex English sentences in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13603],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[13630],"class_list":["post-3068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-grammar"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n