Participle clauses

Structures

Participles can combine with other words into participle clauses with active or passive meanings.

• There’s a woman crying her eyes out over there.
• Most of the people invited to the reception were old friends.
• Not knowing what to do, I telephoned the police.
• Served with milk and sugar, it makes a delicious breakfast.
• Who’s the old man sitting in the corner?
• Rejected by society, he decided to become a monk.

After nouns: the people invited to the party

Participle clauses can be used after nouns and pronouns.

• We can offer you a job cleaning cars.
• There’s Neville, eating as usual.
• In came the first runner, closely followed by the second.
• I found him sitting at a table covered with papers.

Participle clauses used like this are ‘reduced relative clauses’ (see here).

• Who’s the girl dancing with your brother? (= … the girl who is dancing …)
• Anyone touching that wire will get a shock. (= Anyone who touches …)
• Half of the people invited to the party didn’t turn up. (= … who were invited …)

Perfect participles are not often used in this way.

• Do you know anybody who’s lost a cat? (not Do you know anybody having lost a cat?)

Adverbial clauses: Putting down my paper, I …

Participle clauses can also be used in similar ways to full adverbial clauses, expressing condition, reason, time relations, result, etc. (This can only happen, of course, when the idea of condition, reason, etc is so clear that no conjunction is needed to signal it.) Adverbial participle clauses are usually rather formal.

• Used economically, one can will last for six weeks. (= If it is used …)
• Having failed my medical exams, I took up teaching. (= As I had failed …)
• Putting down my newspaper, I walked over to the window. (= After I had put down my newspaper, …)
• It rained for two weeks on end, completely ruining our trip. (= … so that it completely ruined our trip.)

Note that -ing clauses can be made with verbs like be, have, wish and know, which are not normally used in progressive tenses (see here). In these cases, the participle clause usually expresses reason or cause.

• Being unable to help in any other way, I gave her some money.
• Not wishing to continue my studies, I decided to become a dress designer.
• Knowing her pretty well, I realised something was wrong.

Misrelated participles: Looking out of the window, the mountains …

Normally the subject of an adverbial participle clause is the same as the subject of the main clause in a sentence.

• My wife had a talk with Sophie, explaining the problem. (My wife is the subject of explaining.)

It is often considered incorrect to make sentences with misrelated participles (often called ‘dangling participles’), where an adverb clause has a different subject from the main clause.

• Looking out of the window of our hotel room, the mountains were covered with snow. (This could sound as if the mountains were looking out of the window.)

• Wrapped in red and gold gift paper, I delivered the parcel to my girlfriend.

However, sentences like these are common and often seem quite natural, particularly when the main clause has preparatory it or there as a subject.

• Being French, it’s surprising that she’s such a terrible cook.
• Having so little time, there was not much that I could do.

Misrelated participles are normal in some fixed expressions referring to the speaker’s attitude. Examples:

• Generally speaking, men can run faster than women.
• Broadly speaking, dogs are more faithful than cats.
• Judging from his expression, he’s in a bad mood.
• Considering everything, it wasn’t a bad year.
• Supposing there was a war, what would you do?
• Taking everything into consideration, they ought to get another chance.

Participle clauses with their own subjects

A participle clause can have its own subject. This happens most often in a rather formal style.

• Nobody having any more to say, the meeting was closed.
• All the money having been spent, we started looking for work.
• A little girl walked past, her doll dragging behind her on the pavement.
• Hands held high, the dancers circle to the right.

The subject is often introduced by with when the clause expresses accompanying circumstances.

• A car roared past with smoke pouring from the exhaust.
• With Daniel working in Birmingham, and Lucy travelling most of the week, the house seems pretty empty.

Participle clauses after conjunctions and prepositions

-ing clauses can be used after many conjunctions and prepositions. They are common with after, before, since, when, while, on, without, instead of, in spite of and as.

• After talking to you I always feel better.
• After having annoyed everybody he went home.
• Switch off printer before replacing roller.
• She’s been quite different since coming back from America.
• When telephoning from abroad, dial 1865, not 01865.
• On being introduced, British people often shake hands.
• They left without saying goodbye.
• She struck me as being a very nervy kind of person.

Clauses with past participles are possible (mostly in a formal style) after if, when, while, once and until.

• If asked to look after luggage for someone else, inform police at once.
• When opened, consume within three days.
• Once deprived of oxygen, the brain dies.
• Leave in oven until cooked to a light brown colour.

note

For clauses like when ready, (see here).

Object complements

The structure object + participle (clause) is used after verbs of sensation (e.g. see, hear, feel, watch, notice, smell) and some other verbs (e.g. find, get, have, make).

• I saw a small girl standing in the goldfish pond.
• Have you ever heard a nightingale singing?
• I found her drinking my whisky.
• We’ll have to get the car repaired before Tuesday.
• Do you think you can get the radio working?
• We’ll soon have you walking again.
• I can make myself understood pretty well in English.

note

For more about structures with see and hear, (see here).

For get, (see here).

For have, (see here).

For make, (see here).