ESL Term:

Present Participle

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present participle: All verbs come in four forms: base, past, past participle, and present participle. The present participle is the participle ending in 'ing':

        base          past        past participle     present participle

ex.  clean          cleaned         cleaned              cleaning

       eat                ate                eaten                   eating

There are several uses for the present participle:

As an adjective:

      I saw a flying bird.

As a predicate adjective:

      She was crying.

In a participial phrase:

       Walking quickly, he refused to answer any questions.