Participle clauses: For varying style or adding extra information

*Simply speaking, participle clauses are defining relative clauses without the pronouns or auxiliary verbs* They are formed in two ways. With the present participle (-ing) for active meanings, or the past participle (ed) for passive meanings. Note: Both the -ing and the -ed are used with various tenses, not just continuous ones. Irregular verbs follow their normal patterns **The time is not important the subject is**

Active use (-ing)

Passive use (-ed)

Opening her eyes, the baby starts to cry (When Faced with a bill for 10,000, John has to get she opens her eyes...) Present simple another job (Because he is faced with...) Present simple passive That woman talking to my sister is an actress (That woman who is talking...) Present continuous The prisoners being released today are women (The prisoners who are being released...) Present Teams completing the first round go into the continuous passive semi-finals (The teams who have completed...) Present perfect None of the cars inspected so far have passed tests (None of the cars that have been inspected...) Police took away Dr Lim and items belonging Present perfect passive to him (items which belong(ed) to him) Past simple The weapon used in the murder has been found (The weapon which was used....) Past simple passive

The fun with participle clauses comes in creating long, complex sentences with several bits of information. Consider: Sitting by the river, John ate the sandwich made lovingly by his mother, dreaming about the girl left so far behind, waiting for an answer that would never come and thinking about his childhood. Underline the participle clauses!