Pressent participle clause

A present participle clause can express:

an action happening at the same time as the action in the main clause:

Tom lost his keys (while) walking through the park. (Tom lost his keys while he was walking through the park.)
She left the room singing happily. (She left the room as she was singing happily.)

The participle clause can come first in literary styles:

(While) walking through the park, Tom lost his keys.

an action happening just before another action:

Opening the envelope, I found two concert tickets. (I opened the envelope and I found two concert tickets.)

an action that is the result of another action:

Moments later a bomb exploded, leaving three people dead and twelve other injured.
When I entered they all looked at me, making me feel uncomfortable.

a reason for the action in the main clause:

Having nothing left to do, Julie went home. (Since Julie had nothing left to, she went home.)
Knowing a little French, I had no difficulty making myself understood. (As I knew a little French, I had no difficulty making myself understood.)
Working as a sales rep, I get to travel a lot. (I travel a lot because I work as a sales rep.)

Here the subjects of the two actions can be different:

The weather being nice, we decided to go for a picnic. (As the weather was nice, we decided to go for a picnic.)

Perfect participle clauses

If we want to make it clear that an action happens before another one, we use a perfect participle for the earlier action:

Having washed the car, I noticed a small scratch on the front right fender. (After I washed the car, I noticed a small scratch on the front right fender.)

Here the present participle (washing the car) would mean while I was washing the car.

If the two actions do not follow each other immediately, or if the first action happens over a period of time, we use a perfect participle instead of a present participle for the earlier action:

Having seen the film before, I didn't want to go to the cinema.
Mark knew the town well, having lived there all his life.

Past participle clauses

Past participle clauses replace passive voice finite clauses:

Shocked by the explosion, the people ran for shelter. (The people were shocked by the explosion and ran for shelter.)
The musicians stood up, surrounded by thunderous applause. (The musicians stood up while they were surrounded by thunderous applause.)

If we want to emphasise that an action happens before another one, we use a passive perfect participle:

Having been nominated three times for an Oscar, he is one of today's most acclaimed film directors.

Participle clauses replacing a relative clause

A present participle clause can replace an active voice finite relative clause. The noun before the participle is the doer of the action:

The man driving the car was not injured. (The man who was driving the car was not injured.)

Present participle clauses are possible even with verbs which are not normally used in the continuous form (state verbs):

If you think you have received an e-mail containing a virus, you should delete it immediately. (If you think you have received an e-mail which contains a virus, delete it immediately.)

A past participle clause can replace a passive voice finite relative clause. The noun before the participle is its object:

This is the last photograph taken of my grandmother. (This is the last photograph that was taken of my grandmother.)

é acute accent The acute accent is a symbol placed over a vowel in some languages (for example, French and Spanish).	& ampersand An ampersand is a symbol that means "and."	can't apostrophe An apostrophe is a symbol that indicates that some letters have been omitted from a word (for example, "do not" can be written as thecontraction "don't"). Apostrophes are also used to show possession (for example, Jane's doll means a doll belonging to Jane).	@ at sign The @ on keyboards and in email addresses is called the "at sign." You can write one easily by writing a lower case a, then continuing to draw an almost-complete circle around the a.	check A check is mark that is used to note that something has been done or is correct.
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... ellipsis An ellipsis is three dots in a row; it is used to indicate that part of a sentence or sequence has been omitted. It is spoken, "dot, dot, dot." One example of the use of an ellipsis is: Smith said, "Rome had many terrible leaders, ... who caused the Empire to fall." Another example is the mathematical series: 1,3,5,7,9,... (the rest of the odd numbers are implied but not written down).	! exclamation point An exclamation point is a punctuation mark that is used to show strong feeling!	` grave accent The grave accent is a symbol placed over a vowel in some languages (such as French).	- hyphen The hyphen is a punctuation mark used to join or to separate words. Some examples of hyphenated words are: merry-go-round, light-blue, twenty-four, and re-entry.	¶ paragraph A paragraph is a one or more sentences that cover a single topic. The symbol for paragraph is ¶.
period A period is a dot used at the end of a sentence to indicate that it is the end.	question mark A question mark lets you know that a sentence is a question.	"One if by land, ..." quotation marks Quotation marks are used around a quote, when you want to relay exactly what was said or written.	; semicolon A semicolon is a punctuation mark; it is used to separate major parts of a compound sentence.	~ tilde Tilde is a mark placed over a letter in some languages (especially Spanish).
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