The use of participle clauses in a sentence is a style choice. To add variety and range to your writing, you may want to include such structures
Consider these two sentences:
- As she entered the classroom, the student began to feel nervous.
- Entering the classroom, the student began to feel nervous.
These two sentences have the same meaning; in the second sentence, the adverbial clause has been reduced for style. Note that the subject has been omitted and the main verb has been replaced by a participle. This is what is known as a participle clause.
Participles
There are three forms of participle:
- The Present Participle
- verb + ing (deciding, going, taking)
- The Past Participle
- the third form of a verb (decided, gone, taken)
- The Perfect Participle
- having + past participle (having decided, having gone, having taken)
Participle Clauses Used as Adverbials
Participle clauses are often used as adverbials. They have a variety of functions:
To express two actions happening at the same time or very close in time:
- Opening his eyes, the baby began to cry.
To show that one action happened after another had finished:
- Having completed EAP 140, the students took a much deserved week off.
To express reason:
- Trying to expand their social circle, many students with join extracurricular clubs at school.
If you want to emphasize that the cause finished before the result, use the perfect participle:
- Having lived in Korea for over a year, he was quite familiar with a lot of the food and customs.
Reasons in the passive voice are expressed with the Past Participle:
- Hidden behind the trees, the quiet beach could not be seen from the main road.
To express a condition–Note that the conditional clause uses the Past Participle and is in Passive Voice:
Given the opportunity to discover their own interests, children will thrive in school.
To focus on the result:
- A powerful storm hit Buffalo, covering the city in 1.5 metres of snow.
Participle Clauses Used as Adjectives
It is quite common to reduce relative clauses using a Present or a Past Participle:
The Present Participle has an active meaning:
- Students who want to go to a Canadian university need an IELTS score of 6.5.
- Students wanting to go to a Canadian university need an IELTS score of 6.5.
The Past Participle has a passive meaning:
- The ideas that were proposed by the public were rejected by the municipal government.
- The ideas proposed by the public were rejected by the municipal government.