According to Strunk and White, authors of The Elements of Style, a participle is “a verbal that functions as an adjective” (93).

Yes, a verbal. I had to look it up too.

A verbal is “a verb form that functions in a sentence as a noun, an adjective, or an adverb rather than as a principal verb” (95). Basically, a verb went to a costume party and we call it a participle.

The challenge was to teach identification and usage of participles to 23 EFL (English as a Foreign Language) students that still mix up past tense and do not understand commands. (Disclaimer: There are about 6 other above average students that are capable of understanding and using participles.) Our nursing school students will be tested over this information when they take the governmental exam upon graduation. Therefore, they must learn and I must teach.

Following the advice of Frauline Maria per Rogers and Hammerstein we started at the very beginning: verbs, nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, and subjects. Then, we progressed to present and past participles. All students were copying the example sentences and taking notes. Next, participle phrases: modifiers, objects, and compliments. Somewhat confusing, but punctuation rules make identification of these phrases rather simple.

After one hour and thirty minutes of definitions, diagramming sentences, and learning the rules and exceptions, I’m pretty sure their heads were spinning. I assigned 5 sentences for homework, asking them to underline the participle or the participle phrase, label it as past or present, and place commas where needed.

I am curious to see how they do. Even more, I want to know how I did teaching these undercover verbs. Monday is our next class. I’ll know then.