present participlenoun [ C ]
uk/ˌprez.ənt pɑː ˈtɪs.ɪ.pəl/us/ˌprez.ənt ˈpɑːr.tɪ.sɪ.pəl/a form of a verb that in English ends in -ing and comes after another verb to show continuous action. It is used to form the present continuous:
In the sentences "The children are watching television", "The weather is getting colder", and "I heard him singing", "watching", "getting", and "singing" are present participles.
More examples
- In English, the present continuous tense is formed from the auxiliary 'be' and the present participle.
- In the sentence 'Someone is watching you.', 'watching' is the present participle.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Linguistics: verb forms, tenses & types of verbs
- accusative
- arose
- art
- aspect
- began
- bent
- conjugate
- ditransitive
- historic present
- linking verb
- main verb
- passivize
- past participle
- predicate
- progressive
- the future perfect
- the pluperfect
- the present simple
- the third person
- wast
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