Participle clauses

When you use it

A participle clause replaces a longer clause that begins with because, when, while, after, who or which. Because she felt tired, Anna went to bed becomes Feeling tired, Anna went to bed. The result is shorter and more formal. Participle clauses are common in written English, in news, reports and fiction, and less common in speech.

The main condition is that both clauses share the same subject. The participle clause has no subject of its own, so the reader assumes it belongs to the subject of the main clause.

How it is formed

The -ing form is active: the subject does the action. The -ed form is passive: the action is done to the subject. Irregular verbs use their own past participle (written, left, found). Having plus a past participle shows that one action was completed before the other; use it when the order matters or when the two events are far apart in time.

After a noun, a participle clause works like a shortened relative clause: the woman standing by the window means the woman who is standing; the money found in the drawer means the money that was found. This use is called a reduced relative clause and takes no commas when it identifies the noun.

The conjunctions while, when, after, before, since, although, if and once can stand before an -ing form. This keeps the clause short but makes the meaning explicit.

Examples

• Feeling tired, Tom went to bed early.
• The woman standing by the window is Anna's sister.
• Built in 1920, the house needs a lot of work.
• Having finished the report, Anna closed her laptop.
• Not knowing the area, we asked a neighbour for directions.
• Tom hurt his knee while playing football.
• The money found in the drawer belonged to Anna.
• Left alone in the flat, the dog chewed the sofa.

Common mistakes

• ✗ Walking home, the rain started.
  ✓ Walking home, I got caught in the rain. / ✓ While I was walking home, the rain started.
  The participle clause attaches to the subject of the main clause, and here that subject is the rain, which was not walking anywhere. Russian and Ukrainian have the same rule for the деепричастие / дієприслівник, and the classic joke подъезжая к станции, у меня слетела шляпа breaks it in exactly the same way. Trust that instinct in English too.
• ✗ The house building in 1920 is for sale.
  ✓ The house built in 1920 is for sale.
  The house did not build anything; it was built. Slavic languages keep active and passive participles apart (Russian строящий / построенный; Ukrainian avoids the active form and says той, що будує / збудований), and English does the same with -ing against -ed. Choose the form by asking whether the noun does the action or receives it.
• ✗ Being finished the report, Anna went home.
  ✓ Having finished the report, Anna went home.
  Being plus a past participle is passive (being asked). To show that an active action was completed first, use having. The Russian perfective закончив carries this meaning inside the verb, so learners look for a single word and pick the wrong one.
• ✗ After to finish work, Tom called Anna.
  ✓ After finishing work, Tom called Anna.
  Time conjunctions used this way are followed by -ing, never by to plus a verb. The Russian после того как pattern with a full clause has no infinitive either.
• ✗ Feeling tired Tom went to bed, and Anna, felt the same, followed him.
  ✓ Feeling tired, Tom went to bed, and Anna, feeling the same, followed him.
  A participle clause at the front of the sentence is followed by a comma. Inside the sentence it is set off by commas on both sides. The verb inside the clause stays a participle; a finite form such as felt turns it into a broken sentence.

Try it