Forms of the participle

The participle can be in the active or passive voice.

Examples of present participle in the passive form are given below.

Being dissatisfied with the job, he decided to resign.
Being occupied with the work, I didn’t get time to talk to her.

Examples of perfect participle in active form

The perfect participle in the active form is constructed by putting having before the past participle.

Having worked for the whole day, I felt very tired.
The dog having bitten the postman, the farmer decided to shoot it.

The perfect participle in the passive form is constructed by putting having been before the past participle form of the verb.

Having been praised by the king, the artist became famous in his country.

A common error in the use of participles

Read the sentence given below:

Having bitten the postman, the farmer decided to shoot the dog.

This sentence means that it was the farmer who bit the postman, and not the dog.

We have seen that the participle qualifies a noun or a pronoun like an adjective. It should be related to a proper subject of reference. If the subject is lacking or if a wrong subject is used, the whole sentence would be wrong.

Other examples are given below:

Incorrect: Being a rainy day, we didn’t go out.
Correct: It being a rainy day we didn’t go out.
Incorrect: Being a small cot, he could not sleep on it.
Correct: It being a small cot, he couldn’t sleep on it.
Incorrect: Being too costly for him, he could not buy the watch.
Correct: The watch being too costly for him he could not buy it.
Incorrect: Working in the field, a snake bit him.
Correct: Working in the field, he was bitten by a snake.