Participles

1. We use present participle (-ing) and past participle (-ed) clauses in place of relative pronouns to make speech more economical

• This is the road leading to the school (This is the road which leads to the school)
• The building, built in 2005, is the tallest in the city (The building, which was built in 2005, is the tallest in the city)

2. We also use participles in these circumstances:

After certain verbs

• I enjoy running

After conjunctions

• Before going out, I locked the door

After prepositions

• She's really good at swimming

As adjectives

• That film was amazing

As the subject of a sentence

• Eating too much is bad for you

To express time, reason, condition, or result in place of adverbs

• Sitting at the cafe with my friends, I suddenly noticed that I had left my cell phone at home (time)
• Wanting to speak to him about the contract, I decided to call him (reason)
• Seen from a distance, the view is amazing (condition)
• Having refused the invitation, l then changed my decision (result)