Lesson 20: English Present Participles

The Right “-ing”:

This lesson covers present and future participles in the Parasmaipada (Ātmanepada participles will be treated in Lesson 21). By “present participle,” the verbal adjective in “-ing” is meant:

• That running man sure is fast! 

But it also covers our adverbial use (with “while”) of the same:

• Do you ever walk while reading something on your phone?

In both cases, these “-ing” forms (“running” and “reading”) are descriptive in nature, one describing “that man” and the other describing your activity of walking. They are both represented in Sanskrit by the present participle (logically enough, since, as an adjective, the present participle’s main function is to describe). The first sentence would be rendered in Sanskrit:

• क्षिप्र एव स धावन् नरः ।
  (note: the predicate often comes before the subject in nominal sentences)
  

where “running” (धावन्) is a present participle (i.e., an adjective) agreeing with “man” (नरः): i.e., it is in the m.s.nom. here.

The Wrong “-ing”:

On the other hand, the English verbal noun ending in “-ing” is an entirely different formation in Sanskrit, so we need to set it aside at the outset. Which is to say, we’re not concerned here with constructions like:

• Flying is fun. (the verbal noun, “flying,” here is the subject)
  

• I loved your reading. (the noun, “reading,” here is the direct object)
  

Such verbal nouns in “-ing” are called “gerunds” in English grammar—not to be confused with the Sanskrit (-त्वा, etc.) gerund! These nouns will be expressed in Sanskrit by a variety of verbal nouns—and especially by those formed with an -अन suffix: e.g., पठनम्, “reading” (see Whitney §1150). The second sentence above could be rendered in Sanskrit:

• तव पठनं मे ऽतीवारोचत । lit., “Your reading was very appealing to me.”
  

where “reading” (पठनम्) is a noun, and the subject of “loved” or “was appealing” (अरोचत). As an adjective, the Sanskrit present participle could never be used to express “reading” here, as the latter is a verbal noun.

The Future Participle

English does not have a true future participle (a single-word verbal adjective expressing future action). As Deshpande notes, probably the closest constructions for that sense would be our “going to x” or “about to x” phrases. For example, “John, (who was) going to go home / about to go home, said the following.” As with the present participle, the time of the future participle is relative to the time of the finite verb. So “going to go” here is in the future relative to the time of the action of “said” in the speaker’s past. In fact, the going activity may still have been in the speaker’s past.