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  • Adjectives Versus Verbs: Participial Adjectives
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    Adjectives Versus Verbs: Participial Adjectives

    As I have written many times before, the line between grammatical forms is blurry at best, especially among lexical categories like adjectives and verbs. Adjectives are “words that describe nouns.” Verbs are “words that denote actions, occurrences, and states.” Participles are nonfinite verbs that share characteristics and functions of verbs, adjectives, and nouns. A present […] More

  • English Irregular Verbs: Simple Past and Past Participles
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    English Irregular Verbs: Simple Past and Past Participles

    Irregular English verbs are verbs whose conjugations differ from the conjugation patterns of regular verbs. Many common English verbs are irregular in the simple past and the past participle. Irregular verbs are verbs in Germanic languages that express the simple past tense by means of changes to the stem vowel (ablaut). Irregular verbs are also referred […] More

  • Past Participles of Irregular English Verbs
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    Past Participles of Irregular English Verbs

    Past participles, or -en participles, are a nonfinite verb form in English that perform verbal and adjectival functions. The following sections explain how to form past participles of irregular English verbs including anomalous and how to use past participles in English and include examples to illustrate form and function. Past participles are also referred to […] More

  • Present Participles of English Verbs
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    Present Participles of English Verbs

    Present participles, or -ing participles, are a nonfinite verb form in English that perform verbal, adjectival, and nominal functions. The following sections explain how to form present participles and how to use present participles in English and include examples to illustrate form and function. Present participles are also referred to as -ing participles, active participles, […] More