37
The Participle: Introduction
This lesson presents a part of speech known as the PARTICIPLE. Essentially, participles are VERBAL ADJECTIVES. As with verbs, participles have TENSE and VOICE, and can take DIRECT or INDIRECT OBJECTS. As with adjectives, participles have GENDER, NUMBER, and CASE.
English Participles
In English, there are two participial forms:
- The PRESENT participle
- The PAST participle
The PRESENT participle in English is recognized by its ending: –ing. Sometimes the participle stands on its own; in other situations, the participle introduces a PARTICIPIAL PHRASE. A participial phrase consists of the participle, plus any other words or phrases that modify or complement the participle. The present participle in English is ACTIVE.
- Odysseus was a loving father.
- Here the participle stands on its own, modifying father.
- We see Odysseus thinking about it.
- We will see Odysseus fighting the Trojans.
- In these two sentences, each participle is modifying Odysseus; both also introduce participial phrases.
The PAST PARTICIPLE in English is most commonly identified by the ending –ed (e.g., worked, loved), though other forms exist (e.g., eaten, sung). As with the present participle, the participle can stand on its own or introduce a PARTICIPIAL PHRASE. The past participle in English is PASSIVE.
- Odysseus burned the captured city.
- Here the participle modifies city.
- The women, captured by the Greeks, are unhappy.
- Here the participle modifies women, and introduces a participial phrase.
- The war, fought mainly on the plains of Troy, will come to an end.
- Here the participle modifies war, and introduces a participial phrase.
Greek Participles
An ancient grammarian once wrote that the Greeks were φιλομέτοχοι, participle-loving. This is no exaggeration. Nearly a third (!) of Greek verbal forms are participles. As a result, mastering Greek participles is essential to reading almost any paragraph of ancient Greek.
As VERBAL ADJECTIVES, Greek participles are part VERB (and so possess tense and voice), and part ADJECTIVE (and so decline to reflect gender, number, case):
Greek participles exist in three tenses: PRESENT, FUTURE, and AORIST. To form each of these tenses:
- Participles use the same TENSE STEM that a given VERB uses in the INDICATIVE mood.
Greek participles exist in the ACTIVE, MIDDLE, and PASSIVE voices. To mark these voices:
- Participles add VOICE MARKERS to the tense stem.
Finally, Greek participles must be able to reflect the GENDER, NUMBER, and CASE of their ANTECEDENT, i.e., the noun to which the participle refers or modifies. To match the antecedent:
- Participles add ADJECTIVE endings.
Putting it all together, the formation of a participle looks something like this:
Active Participles
The pattern for ALL PARTICIPLES in the ACTIVE voice is:
- tense stem + ντ + 3-1-3 adjective endings
- A σ is added before the 1st declension endings for the FEMININE
- 1st declension endings for the FEMININE use ᾰ in the nom. and acc.