PARTS OF SPEECH: PARTICLE & PARTICIPLE

A particle, sometimes called a tied preposition, is a word which belongs with a verb and is part of its meaning e.g. I looked at my lover. She looked like a movie star.

To find the meaning of looked at and looked like, a person learning English as a foreign language would have to search in a dictionary for look at and look like because searching for words like at and like would be no help.

As a noun, a particle is a minute portion of matter. In physics, a component of the physical world smaller than an atom e.g. an electron, proton, neutrino, or photon. Grammatically, it is a minor function word that has comparatively little meaning and does not inflect e.g. in, up, off, over used with verbs to make phrasal verbs. The definition is of Latin origin i.e. particula ‘little part’.


A participle can be present e.g. talking or eating or past e.g. talked or eaten, and can work as a noun e.g. e.g. Jogging is enjoyable
OR it can work as part of a verb e.g. I am enjoying this.
OR it can work as an adjective e.g. This was a stimulating exercise routine.

All present participles end in –ing e.g. hurrying
Past participles end in –ed, -d, -en, -n, -t, or –k e.g. hurried, found, taken, torn, put, sunk.