Participle clauses in English: -ing and -ed clauses, and the dangling participle trap

A participle clause is a short clause with no subject and no tense of its own, built on a participle: Walking home, I saw an old friend. It means the same as While I was walking home, I saw an old friend, but it is shorter, and it does not repeat the subject. That is the whole point of the structure.

Be honest with yourself about why you are learning this. Nobody speaks in participle clauses. You will not fail to be understood without them. What they do is make written English tighter, and they appear constantly in news reports, reviews, instructions and formal writing, so you need to read them fluently before you worry about producing them. Then, once you do produce them, there is one way to go badly wrong, and it is funny enough to be worth a section of its own.

The two forms

There are two basic participles, and choosing between them is the whole grammar.

The -ing clause is active. The subject of the main clause does the action.

• Feeling tired, she went to bed. (She feels tired.)
• Hearing the news, they began to shout. (They heard the news.)

The -ed clause is passive. The subject of the main clause receives the action. Irregular verbs use the third form, not the -ed one: written, built, taken, sent.

• Built in 1890, the house is still strong. (The house was built.)
• Written in a hurry, the letter was full of mistakes. (The letter was written.)

One thing to keep separate before we go on. The -ing form here is not a gerund. In I enjoy reading, the -ing word is a noun sitting where a noun goes, and which verbs take it is a question of vocabulary lists: that is the gerund and infinitive topic. Here the -ing word heads a whole clause and replaces while I was... or because she.... Same spelling, different machinery. In the same way, the -ed clause is just the passive with be taken out.

The test takes two seconds. Turn the participle back into a full clause with the main subject. If she was feeling works, use -ing. If the letter was written works, use the -ed form. Getting this the wrong way round is the most common error in the topic, and it produces sentences like writing in a hurry, the letter was full of mistakes, which says the letter did the writing.

Having done, and the negative

Two variations cover most of what is left.

Having + past participle marks one action as finished before the other. Use it when the order matters.

• Having finished his work, he went out.
• Having spent all the money, he could not pay for the taxi.

The passive version is having been + past participle: Having been fed, the horses were led back.

Negatives go in front, not after. It is not knowing, never knowing not.

• Not knowing what to say, he said nothing.
• Not having the answer, I stayed quiet.

Participle clauses instead of relative clauses

A large share of the participle clauses you meet in reading are simply relative clauses with the pronoun and the verb be removed. This works only in defining clauses, and only when the relative pronoun is the subject.

Notice these ones sit after the noun, with no comma, and answer "which one?" This is a different job from the clauses at the start of a sentence, which answer "when?" or "why?" Same form, two uses.

Two limits worth knowing. You cannot do this when the pronoun is the object (the film that I saw has no participle version), and you cannot do it in a non-defining clause with commas.

What an -ing clause actually means

An -ing clause never states its own relationship to the main clause. The reader works it out from the sense, which is exactly why the form is compact and also why a careless one is confusing. There are three normal readings.

• At the same time. Opening the box, he found a ring.
• Just before. Turning round, she saw the dog.
• A reason. Feeling ill, she went home. (= because she felt ill)

There is a fourth, less common, which comes after the main clause and gives the result: The wind blew all night, bringing down two trees. Note the order: the result comes second, because it follows from what came first. Put it at the front and you change the meaning.

The dangling participle

Here is the trap. A participle clause has no subject of its own, so English assumes its subject is the subject of the main clause. If those two do not match, the sentence says something absurd. This is called a dangling participle, and once you can see it you will find it everywhere in real writing.

Standing at the window in nothing but a towel, the postman waved at me.

The subject of the main clause is the postman. So it is the postman who is standing there in the towel, waving. That is not the sentence anybody meant to write.

More of the same:

• Cooked slowly for six hours, my sister served the lamb. (My sister was in the oven.)
• Having been fed and watered, the guide led the horses back. (The guide had a good breakfast.)
• Looking out of the window, the sea was blue. (The sea was looking out of the window.)
• Being only six years old, my mother would not let me go. (Mother is six.)

The fix is always one of two things. Either change the main clause so its subject is the one doing the participle:

Standing at the window in nothing but a towel, I waved back at the postman.

Or give up on the participle and write a full clause with its own subject, which is usually the better sentence anyway:

As I stood at the window in nothing but a towel, the postman waved at me.

The checking habit is simple: read the participle clause, then look straight at the first noun after the comma. That noun is your subject, whether you like it or not.

Register: where these belong

Participle clauses are a written form. In speech they sound stiff or literary, and native speakers use full clauses instead: while I was walking home, after he had finished, because she felt ill. Reserve participle clauses for writing, and even there do not stack them. Two in one sentence (Having finished the report and feeling pleased with himself, he...) is already pushing it; three reads like a bad news story.

Summary table

Common mistakes

Ranked by how often learners actually make them.

1. Using -ing when the meaning is passive. Writing in a hurry, the letter was full of mistakes. The letter did not write anything: written in a hurry, the letter was full of mistakes.
2. Dangling the participle. The subject of the participle clause has to be the subject of the main clause. If it is not, rewrite one half.
3. Adding a subject to the participle clause. She feeling tired, she went to bed is not English. The participle clause never has its own subject; that is the definition of it.
4. Putting not after the participle. Knowing not what to say is old poetry, not modern English. It is not knowing what to say.
5. Using a participle clause for two unconnected facts. Living in Leeds, he has two children. There is no time link and no reason link, so the form has nothing to express. Use and.
6. Forgetting the comma. A participle clause at the front of a sentence takes a comma: Feeling ill, she went home. One after a noun does not: the man sitting there.

Practice

Rewrite or complete each sentence. Answers are below.

1. ___ (finish) the book, she turned off the light.
2. ___ (build) of wood, the bridge is very old.
3. ___ (not know) his name, I could not ask for him.
4. The woman ___ (stand) by the door is my boss.
5. What is wrong with: Driving home, the rain got worse.

Answers: 1. Having finished (one action clearly before the other) 2. Built (passive: the bridge was built) 3. Not knowing (negative in front) 4. standing (after the noun, short for who is standing) 5. It dangles: the rain was not driving home. Write As I drove home, the rain got worse.