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In the English language, there are two types of participle:

1. the present participle, which is formed by adding the suffix "-ing" to a verb. The form is the same as that of a gerund), but the usage differs.
2. the past participle, which is formed by adding the suffix "-ed".

Most irregular verb do not follow this pattern for forming past participles. Only modal auxiliary verbs fail to form present participles in English. All others form present participles by adding "-ing"; even the most irregular verbs do not vary from that pattern.

Examples

• "talk" becomes "talking" and "talked" (regular)
• "do" becomes "doing" and "done" (irregular)
• "get" becomes "getting" and "got" or "gotten" (irregular).

Many adjectives are formed from participles; as in "I saw a talking horse", "It was the done thing" and "She sold the crashed car at a loss".

A present participle is often confused with a gerund, a noun form of a verb with "-ing".

Other languages have different sorts of participles. E.g. Latin has:

• active present participle: educans "teaching"
• passive perfect participle: educatus "having been taught"
• passive future participle: educandus "about to be taught"

Old English ended present participles with -ind. In the East Midlands dialect, it merges with -ing, which originally only named actions.

In Esperanto each transitive verb has two present participles (active and passive), two past participles, two future participles, and two conditional participles. The conditional participles were not planned, but are universally understood. Intransitive verbs of course cannot have passive participles.