Page 176 - Basic English Usage

236 178

Compare:
| thought the lesson was interesting.
| was interested in the lesson.
(NOT +wasinteresting thetessonr-)
in
Sheila's party was pretty boring.
i went home early because | felt bored.
(NOT ... beeause-Heltbering-)
it was an exciting story.
When | read it | felt excited.
The explanation was confusing. | got confused.
It was a tiring day. it made me tired.

There are a few exceptional past participles which can have active
meanings. The most important:
fallen rocks a retired army officer
agrown-up daughter anescaped prisoner

236 participle clauses

We can use a participle rather like a conjunction, to introduce a
‘participle clause’.
Who's the fat man sitting in the corner?
Do you know the number of people employed by the government?
Jumping into a small red sports car, she drove off.

Participie clauses can have different uses. Some of them are ‘adjectival’:
they modify nouns, rather like adjectives or relative clauses (see 280).
Compare:
What's the name of the noisy child? (adjective)
What's the name of the child making the noise? (participle clause)
What's the name of the child who is making the noise? (relative
clause)
Other participle clauses are ‘adverbial’. They may express ideas of time,
cause, consequence or condition, for example.
Putting down my newspaper, | walked over to the window.
(time: one thing happened before another)
! sat reading some old letters.
(time: two things happened at the same time)
Not knowing what to do, | telephoned the police.
(reason: Because | did not know ...)
it rained ail the time, completely ruining our holiday.
(consequence: ... So that it ruined our holiday.)
Driven carefully. the car will do fifteen kilometres to the litre of petrol.
(condition: /fitis driven carefully ...)