The Present Participle

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

今天，我们先从一个问题开始：以下三个句子有什么共同之处？

You are learning about grammar.

你正在学习语法。

The president's words were shocking.

总统的话令人震惊。

I smelled food burning in the kitchen.

我闻到了厨房里食物烧焦的味道。

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.

你发现这几句话的共同点了吗？你可能已经注意到每个句子中都有一个以ing开头的单词：learning，exciting，burning。这些词是现在分词形式，现在分词以-ing结尾，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.

现在分词可以指现在、过去，也可以指将来。我希望你对现在分词的理解在接下来的几分钟时间里会变得清晰。

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

在今天的语法节目中，我们将探讨现在分词的三种用法。

Continuous tenses

进行时态

Let's start with continuous verb tenses.

我们先从动词的进行时态开始讲起。

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.

进行时态包含be动词和动词的ing形式。英语中有六种进行时。有些比较常见；有些不怎么常见。要理解现在分词，并不需要全都学。

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

进行时态可以描述现在、过去或将来的动作或事件。

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

下面让我们回顾一下前面提到的例句。请仔细听动词：

You are learning about grammar.

你正在学习语法。

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."

在这里，说话者使用了现在进行时态。注意be动词的现在式是are。这里的teach用的是现在分词形式：teaching。

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

下面请听一个关于已经发生的事情的例句：

I was watching a movie when you called.

你打电话时，我正在看电影。

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，说话者使用的是was watching，这是过去进行时。注意be动词的过去式是was。动词watch用的还是现在分词形式：watching。

Sense verbs

感官动词

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

接下来，我们来看看感知动词，也被称为感官动词。

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

这些动词用来描述通过视觉、听觉、触觉、嗅觉和味觉等物理感官所获得的体验。

We sometimes use the present participle after sense verbs.

我们有时在感官动词后使用现在分词。

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

注意听刚才的句子中的动词和现在分词:

I smelled food burning in the kitchen.

我闻到厨房里有食物烧焦的味道。

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."

在这里，感官动词是smell，这句话描述的是过去发生的事情。说话者使用动词burn的现在分词形式burning。

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

注意，句子结构是感官动词+宾语+现在分词。句子中的宾语是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.

在感官动词之后使用现在分词，表明说话人只体验到了事情的一部分。它强调了当说话者经历一件事情时，动作正在进行或尚未结束。

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

下面是另一个包含了感官动词和现在分词的例句：

I heard the woman talking about the election.

我听到那个女人在谈论选举问题。

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.

这里的感官动词是heard，动词talk用的是其现在分词形式talking。宾语是the woman。在这里使用现在分词talking表明说话人只听到了部分内容。

Participial adjectives

现在分词作形容词

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，我们来看看以-ing结尾的形容词，也被称为现在分词形容词。不要担心！你不需要记住这个名称。记住，在英语中，有些形容词是以-ing结尾的。

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

我们通常用这些形容词来描述引发某种感觉或情感的人、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:

在前面的一个例句中，你听到了形容词shocking。再来听一遍，在心里记下是什么引起了这种情绪：

The president's words were shocking.

总统的话令人震惊。

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

说话着表示，她对总统所说的话感到震惊。

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

现在分词形容词在句子中的位置和普通形容词一样，出现在系动词如be等之后，且在名词之前。

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

请听最后这个例句，注意带ing的形容词以及后面的名词：

That boring online class put me to sleep!

无聊的网课让我睡着了！

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

你找到形容词了吗？它就是boring，放在了名词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.

记住，-ing形式的形容词用来描述引发某种情感的原因。在这里，网课让说话者感到很无聊。