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Lesson Seven — Participles

In chapter 4, I described six of the twelve inflexions of the Esperanto verb. In this chapter, I will describe the other six.

Here are the six already described:

ami	infinitive — “to love” — the dictionary form
amis	past tense — “loved” — for past actions
amas	present tense — “love/loves” — for present or ongoing actions
amos	future tense — “will love” — for future actions
amus	conditional/subjunctive — “would love” — for statements that are conditional, or contrary to fact
amu	imperative — “love!” — for commands

The other six forms are participles, which are verbs used as adjectives to describe someone as performing an action, (three active participles) or as being affected byd an action (three passive participles). Each group of three has one past form, one present form, and one future form. Again, I’ll use the verb for “to love” as my example:

Participle	Description
aminta	Past active participle — Describes someone or something that performed, was performing or has performed the action.
amanta	Present active participle — Describes someone or something that performs or is performing the action.
amonta	Future active participle — Describes someone or something that will perform the action.
amita	Past passive participle — Describes someone or something that was affected or has been affected by the action.
amata	Present passive participle — Describes someone or something that is affected or is being affected by the action.
amota	Future passive participle — Describes someone or something that will be affected by the action.

I’ve shown these with adjective endings, because participles are principally verbal adjectives. As you will see, though, they can be nouns or adverbs as well.

English has to make do with only two participles: past passive and present active. We do all right with only these two, but Esperanto’s six allow it to say more with fewer words.

The Participle as an Adjective

Here are some examples of the use of the participles. First, the three active participles:

1a	Mi	donas	la dolaron	al	la knabo	teninta	la libron.
1a	I	am giving	the dollar	to	the boy	who was holding	the book.

1b	Ĉu	vi	vidas	la viron	promenadantan	en	la	arbaro?
1b	--	²you	¹Do ³see	the man	walking	in	the	woods?

1c	La virino	kantonta	pri	paco	havas	tri	infanojn.
1c	The woman	who will be singing	about	peace	has	three	children.

Note that the active participles can have direct objects of their own, which is possible because they are verbal adjectives.

In 1a, the participle refers to someone doing something in the past, so we need some extra words in the English translation. It has an adjective ending, because it is a verbal adjective.

In 1b, the adjective ending on the participle, -an, has the accusative marker because the noun it modifies is the object of the verb.

In 1c, the subject is described as doing something in the future, so we have the multi-word translation again.

And here are examples of the three passive participles:

2a	La kajuto	konstruita	el	ligno	estas	bruna.
2a	The cabin	built	of	wood	is	brown.

2b	La	forportata	gruzo	vendiĝos	al	la	urbo.
2b	The	²that ³is ⁴being ⁵carried ⁶away	¹gravel	will be sold	to	the	city.

2c	La hotelo	konstruota	en	la placo	estos	luksa.
2c	The hotel	that will be built	in	the plaza	will be	luxurious.

The past passive participle in 2a is easily translated by a one-word translation, using the past passive participle of English. The sentence merely tells about the cabin’s material, and its color.

The present passive participle in 2b takes more words, because we have to build up the equivalent of such a participle with a subordinate clause.

In English, we also have the option of translating the future participle in 2c with an infinitive, “to be built”.

The Participle as an Adverb

A participle can also be used as an adverb if…

the noun that it would modify as an adjective is the subject of the sentence,
the participle has a direct object, or is itself modified by an adverb or prepositional phrase, and
the participle explains how, when, or why the action of the participle occurs, relative to the main verb.

3a	La viro	portante	la katon	vidas	grandan	hundon.
3a	The man	holding	the cat	sees	a large	dog.

3b	La kato	portate	en	katejo	iras	al	la bestokuracisto.
3b	The cat	carried	in	the kennel	is going	to	the veteranarian.

3c	La kajuto	konstruite	el	ligno	estas	bruna.
3c	The cabin,	[because it is] built	of	wood,	is	brown.

In 3a, the adverbial participle says that the man saw the dog while carrying the cat.

The participle in 3b tells how the cat is traveling.

Note that 3c is identical to 2a except that the participle occurs as an adverb, telling why the cabin is brown.

The Participle as a Noun

A participle with an -o ending always refers to a person. But note that in a Winnie-the-Pooh story, for example, it could refer to a bear, pig, donkey, etc., because in the story, those animals are persons. Not all persons are human beings.

4a	La murdito	estis	fama	kantisto.
4a	The murder-victim	was	a famous	singer.

4b	La komencanto	atentu	zorge.
4b	The beginner	shall pay attention	carefully.

4c	La geedziĝontoj	estas	tre	feliĉaj.
4c	La engaged couple	are	very	happy.

The participles above mean, literally, (4a) “the one who was murdered”, (4b) “the one who is beginning”, and (4c) “the people who will become man and wife”.

Participles for Forming Compound Tenses

I’ve received some criticism on my first explanation of this topic, so I’ve removed the first version, and will rewrite this, after studying what various textbooks have to say about it.

Questions or suggestions? Please write, and I’ll get back to you.