Skill 4: BE CAREFUL OF PRESENT PARTICIPLES
A present participle is the -ing form of the verb (talking, Playing). In structure questions on the TOEFL test, a present participle can cause confusion because it can be either a part of the verb or an adjective. It is part of the verb when it is preceded by some form of the verb be.
The man is talking to his friend. (is talking = verb)
In this sentence, talking is part of the verb because it is accompanied by is.
A present participle is an adjective when it is not accompanied by some form of the verb be.
The man talking to his friend has a beard. (talking = adjective)
In this sentence, talking is an adjective and not part of the verb because it is not accompanied by some form of be. The verb in this sentence is "has".
Example:
The child _____ playing in the yard is my son.
(A) now
(B) is
(C) he
(D) was
Answer:
In this example, if you look at only the first words of the sentence, it appears that 'The child' is the subject and 'playing' is part of the verb. If you think that playing is part of the verb, you might choose answer (B), is, or answer (D), was, to complete the verb. However, these two answers are incorrect because playing is not part of the verb. You should recognize that 'playing' is a participial adjective rather than a verb because there is another verb in the sentence 'is'. In this sentence there is a complete subject 'The child' and a complete verb 'is', so this sentence does not need another subject or verb. The best answer here is (A).
