A participial clause is built around an -ing or past-participle verb form. It does not carry the sentence’s main tense. The complete clause may modify a noun, as standing by the gate modifies the child, or describe a circumstance of the main event.
The diagram places raced past the barn inside the subject noun phrase. Its object gap marks the horse as the thing raced; fell is the finite verb in the outer predicate.
a noun-internal clause
Find the unspoken role
What role does each noun leave unspoken?
The child is understood as the one standing: an -ing participial modifier.
The window is understood as the thing broken: a past-participial modifier.
In the first phrase, the child is understood as the one standing. In the second, the window is understood as the thing broken. A fuller relative such as the child who is standing can support an integrated noun-modifying reading, but it is a paraphrase, not a definition, and it does not describe a fronted participial adverbial.
Find the verb that carries the sentence’s tense.
A participle may appear before the main verb without completing the sentence. Find the finite predicate first, then ask what the participial clause modifies. A past participle can describe someone or something without forming a passive sentence on its own.
Ten sentences from this lesson, one decision at a time.