The Present Participle

Today, let me start with a question: What do the following three statements have in common?

今天，我們先從一個(gè)問題開始：以下三個(gè)句子有什么共同之處？

You are learning about grammar.

你正在學(xué)習(xí)語法。

The president's words were shocking.

總統(tǒng)的話令人震驚。

I smelled food burning in the kitchen.

我聞到了廚房里食物燒焦的味道。

Did you find the commonality? You may have noted that there is an -ing word in each sentence: learning, exciting, burning. These are examples of the present participle, a word form that ends in -ing and has a specific purpose in a sentence.

你發(fā)現(xiàn)這幾句話的共同點(diǎn)了嗎？你可能已經(jīng)注意到每個(gè)句子中都有一個(gè)以ing開頭的單詞：learning，exciting，burning。這些詞是現(xiàn)在分詞形式，現(xiàn)在分詞以-ing結(jié)尾，在句子中有特定的用途。

Present participles can refer to the present, past or future. I hope the meaning of that becomes clearer over the next few minutes.

現(xiàn)在分詞可以指現(xiàn)在、過去，也可以指將來。我希望你對現(xiàn)在分詞的理解在接下來的幾分鐘時(shí)間里會(huì)變得清晰。

On this everyday grammar program, we will talk about three uses for present participles.

在今天的語法節(jié)目中，我們將探討現(xiàn)在分詞的三種用法。

Continuous tenses

進(jìn)行時(shí)態(tài)

Let's start with continuous verb tenses.

我們先從動(dòng)詞的進(jìn)行時(shí)態(tài)開始講起。

As a reminder, a continuous tense is one that includes the verb "be" plus the -ing form of a verb. There are six continuous tenses in English. Some are more common than others. You do not need to learn them all to understand the present participle.

進(jìn)行時(shí)態(tài)包含be動(dòng)詞和動(dòng)詞的ing形式。英語中有六種進(jìn)行時(shí)。有些比較常見；有些不怎么常見。要理解現(xiàn)在分詞，并不需要全都學(xué)。

Continuous tenses can describe present, past or future actions or events.

進(jìn)行時(shí)態(tài)可以描述現(xiàn)在、過去或?qū)淼膭?dòng)作或事件。

Now, let's think about an example from earlier. Listen closely for the verb:

下面讓我們回顧一下前面提到的例句。請仔細(xì)聽動(dòng)詞：

You are learning about grammar.

你正在學(xué)習(xí)語法。

Here, the speaker used the present continuous verb tense. Notice that the verb "be" appears in the present form "are." And the verb "teach" is in present participle form, "teaching."

在這里，說話者使用了現(xiàn)在進(jìn)行時(shí)態(tài)。注意be動(dòng)詞的現(xiàn)在式是are。這里的teach用的是現(xiàn)在分詞形式：teaching。

Now, listen to an example about something that already happened:

下面請聽一個(gè)關(guān)于已經(jīng)發(fā)生的事情的例句：

I was watching a movie when you called.

你打電話時(shí)，我正在看電影。

In the first part of the sentence, the speaker used the verb "was watching," which is the past continuous tense. Notice that the verb "be" appears in the past form, "was." Yet the verb "watch" still appears in present participle form, "watching."

在句子的前半部分，說話者使用的是was watching，這是過去進(jìn)行時(shí)。注意be動(dòng)詞的過去式是was。動(dòng)詞watch用的還是現(xiàn)在分詞形式：watching。

Sense verbs

感官動(dòng)詞

Next, let's turn to verbs of perception, also known as "sense verbs."

接下來，我們來看看感知?jiǎng)釉~，也被稱為感官動(dòng)詞。

These are verbs that describe experiences we have through the physical senses of sight, sound, touch, smell and taste.

這些動(dòng)詞用來描述通過視覺、聽覺、觸覺、嗅覺和味覺等物理感官所獲得的體驗(yàn)。

We sometimes use the present participle after sense verbs.

我們有時(shí)在感官動(dòng)詞后使用現(xiàn)在分詞。

Listen for the sense verb and the present participle in this sentence, which you heard earlier:

注意聽剛才的句子中的動(dòng)詞和現(xiàn)在分詞:

I smelled food burning in the kitchen.

我聞到廚房里有食物燒焦的味道。

Here, the sense verb is "smell" and the sentence is about something that happened in the past. The speaker used the verb "burn" in its present participle form, "burning."

在這里，感官動(dòng)詞是smell，這句話描述的是過去發(fā)生的事情。說話者使用動(dòng)詞burn的現(xiàn)在分詞形式burning。

Notice that the sentence structure is sense verb + object + present participle. The object in the speaker's sentence is "food."

注意，句子結(jié)構(gòu)是感官動(dòng)詞+賓語+現(xiàn)在分詞。句子中的賓語是food。

After sense verbs, use of the present participle shows that the speaker experienced only part of what happened. It emphasizes that an action was in progress or not finished when a speaker experienced it.

在感官動(dòng)詞之后使用現(xiàn)在分詞，表明說話人只體驗(yàn)到了事情的一部分。它強(qiáng)調(diào)了當(dāng)說話者經(jīng)歷一件事情時(shí)，動(dòng)作正在進(jìn)行或尚未結(jié)束。

Here is another example that involves a sense verb and the present participle:

下面是另一個(gè)包含了感官動(dòng)詞和現(xiàn)在分詞的例句：

I heard the woman talking about the election.

我聽到那個(gè)女人在談?wù)撨x舉問題。

The sense verb here is "heard" and the verb "talk" is in present participle form, "talking." The object is "the woman." Use of the present participle "talking" here suggests the speaker only heard part of what was said.

這里的感官動(dòng)詞是heard，動(dòng)詞talk用的是其現(xiàn)在分詞形式talking。賓語是the woman。在這里使用現(xiàn)在分詞talking表明說話人只聽到了部分內(nèi)容。

Participial adjectives

現(xiàn)在分詞作形容詞

And finally, we move to adjectives that end in -ing, also known as present participial adjectives. Do not worry! You do not need to remember that term. Just remember that in English, some adjectives end in -ing.

最后，我們來看看以-ing結(jié)尾的形容詞，也被稱為現(xiàn)在分詞形容詞。不要擔(dān)心！你不需要記住這個(gè)名稱。記住，在英語中，有些形容詞是以-ing結(jié)尾的。

We usually use these adjectives to describe a person, thing or idea that causes a feeling or emotion.

我們通常用這些形容詞來描述引發(fā)某種感覺或情感的人、事或想法。

In one of our earlier examples, you heard the adjective "shocking." Listen to it again and take mental note of what caused the emotion:

在前面的一個(gè)例句中，你聽到了形容詞shocking。再來聽一遍，在心里記下是什么引起了這種情緒：

The president's words were shocking.

總統(tǒng)的話令人震驚。

The speaker is saying that she felt shocked by something: the president's words.

說話著表示，她對總統(tǒng)所說的話感到震驚。

Participial adjectives appear in the same position in sentences that normal adjectives do – after linking verbs, such as "be," and before nouns.

現(xiàn)在分詞形容詞在句子中的位置和普通形容詞一樣，出現(xiàn)在系動(dòng)詞如be等之后，且在名詞之前。

In this final example, listen for the -ing adjective and the noun that follows:

請聽最后這個(gè)例句，注意帶ing的形容詞以及后面的名詞：

That boring online class put me to sleep!

無聊的網(wǎng)課讓我睡著了！

Did you find the adjective? It was "boring." And it came before the noun "online classes."

你找到形容詞了嗎？它就是boring，放在了名詞online classes之前。

Remember that -ing adjectives describe the cause for an emotion. In this case, the online class caused the speaker to feel bored.

記住，-ing形式的形容詞用來描述引發(fā)某種情感的原因。在這里，網(wǎng)課讓說話者感到很無聊。