VOA慢速英语--Understanding the Past Participle

 

Every language has its own way of saying something happened in the past, is happening now or will happen in the future. As you know, English does this through verb tenses.

Most English tenses use a word form called a "participle." There are present participles and past participles. Take the statement "I have been to Atlanta." It uses "been," which is the past participle of the verb "be."

In addition to forming verb tenses, the past participle can form two other things. One is the passive¹ voice and the other is adjectives³. On today's program, I will talk about all three of these.

Recognize past participles

By now in your English studies, you have heard and seen the past participle countless⁴ times. You just may not have known what it was called. In fact, I used it a few times in this paragraph alone.

The past participle is everywhere so let me begin with a quick discussion⁵ about recognizing it.

You probably know that the past tense of a regular verb ends in -ed, as in "I talked to my friend." For regular verbs, the past participle also ends in -ed. In other words, it is identical⁶, as in "I have talked to her about my plans."

Most English verbs are regular, so most of their past participles are identical to the past tense.

But for irregular verbs, the past participles and past tenses are not the same. Think of the verb "take" as an example. Its past tense is "took," as in "I took my mother to the park." The past participle is "taken," as in "She has taken that flight many times."

The perfect tenses

OK, now let's get into today's subject: the three uses for past participles.

The first we will look at is perfect verb tenses.

As a reminder⁷, a perfect tense is one that puts some form of the verb "have" before its main verb. Take one of my examples again:

She has taken that flight many times.

I used the present perfect tense, which is have or has + past participle.

Knowing the name of this or other verb tenses is not important for today's lesson. The thing to remember is this: All perfect tenses in English include the past participle.

Listen for it in this next example:

She had studied English before moving to the U.S.

The speaker used the past participle "studied" as part of the past perfect verb "had studied."

Again, do not worry if you do not know the names of these verb tenses. Simply note that they are perfect tenses and perfect tenses use past participles.

The passive voice

Next, let's talk about the passive voice – the second use for the past participle.

Here is a quick refresher:

In most sentences in English, the subject performs the action of the verb. Take the example "You called a friend." The subject is "You" and the subject performs the action "called."

But sometimes the subject is acted upon or receives the action of the verb. This is called the passive voice. Imagine that someone steals your bike. You could say, "My bike was stolen." There is no mention of the person because you do not know who did it.

We can use passive voice when we do not know who or what performed the action or when identifying the performer is not important.

In English, the most basic passive voice is formed with be + past participle. Let's examine the bike example:

My bike was stolen.

Here, the verb "be" appears in the past tense "was." And "stolen" is the past participle of "steal."

Listen for be + past participle in this next example:

The dish is cooked over an open fire.

Here, the verb "be" is in the present tense "is." "Cook" is a regular verb, so its past participle is "cooked."

Use as adjectives

And, finally, we turn to adjectives – the third use for past participles.

Only some past participles can be used as adjectives. These adjectives are a little different from normal ones because they generally describe how someone feels.

The adjective² "bored" is a good example. If you wanted to describe this feeling in a group of children, you could say this:

The children are bored.

Notice that the adjective comes after the linking verb "be." You can learn more about linking verbs on earlier programs.

Now, suppose these same children begin to misbehave. You could say this:

The bored children are getting into trouble.

Here, the speaker put the adjective "bored" before the noun⁸ "children."

When past participles act as adjectives, they appear in the same places as normal adjectives – after linking verbs and before nouns⁹. But, note again that these kinds of adjectives describe a person or people's feelings.

And that's Everyday Grammar for this week.

I'm Alice Bryant.

Words in This Story

tense – n. a form of a verb that is used to show when an action happened

passive voice – n. a way of writing or speaking that uses passive verbs

paragraph – n. a part of a piece of writing that usually that begins on a new line and often is made up of a few sentences

regular – adj. following the normal patterns by which word forms

identical – adj. exactly the same

mention – n. to talk about, write about, or refer to something or someone, especially in a brief way

dish – n. food that is prepared in a particular way

bored – adj. tired and annoyed you are unoccupied or do not have interest in your current activity.

linking verb – n. a verb (such as be, appear or become) that connects a subject with an adjective or noun that describes or identifies the subject

1 passive   

adj.被动的；消极的

参考例句：

• He has a passive expression on his face.他脸上有一种漠然的表情。
• It lands the manager in a passive position.它使经理处于被动地位。

2 adjective   

n.形容词；adj.形容词的，用作形容词的

参考例句：

• Don't apply that adjective to me.不要用那个字眼来形容我。
• The adjective loose has several senses. 形容词loose有几个义项。

3 adjectives   

n.形容词( adjective的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• We can form nouns from adjectives. 我们可以用形容词来构成名词。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Attributive adjectives precede the noun. 定语形容词位于名词前。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 countless   

adj.无数的，多得不计其数的

参考例句：

• In the war countless innocent people lost their lives.在这场战争中无数无辜的人丧失了性命。
• I've told you countless times.我已经告诉你无数遍了。

5 discussion   

n.讨论，谈论；论述

参考例句：

• It is certain he will come to the discussion.他肯定会来参加讨论。
• After months of discussion,a peace agreement is gradually taking shape.经过几个月的商讨，和平协议渐渐有了眉目。

6 identical   

adj.完全一样的，完全相同的；同一的

参考例句：

• She wore the identical dress on both occasions.她在两种场合穿的是同一件衣服。
• He is identical in character with his wife.他的品性和他的夫人相同。

7 reminder   

n.提醒物，纪念品；暗示，提示

参考例句：

• I have had another reminder from the library.我又收到图书馆的催还单。
• It always took a final reminder to get her to pay her share of the rent.总是得发给她一份最后催缴通知，她才付应该交的房租。

8 noun   

n.名词

参考例句：

• What kind of noun is this?这是哪类名词？
• This word is a collective noun.这个词是个集体名词。

9 nouns   

n.名词；名词( noun的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns. 法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Nouns join to form compounds. 名词和名词结合构成复合词。 来自《简明英汉词典》