Participles and Participial Phrases

Participles are verbs written in a certain tense to help modify a point in time. "I had gone," for example, shows the past participle of the verb "to go," where the present participle would be "going," as in, "I am going."  All verbs have participle forms, many of which are irregular, or don't follow a set rule.  When the verb in its participle form is acting like an adjective, moreover, it is called a participial phrase.  The sentence "Going to the beach, I saw Bitsy" begins with a participial phrase, where the participle "Going" modifies the subject, "I".  Since it modifies a pronoun (or a noun), it acts like an adjective.

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1) Happily, they saw him descending the airplane steps.                               
                                                                     
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2) Shouting his name repeatedly, the crowd followed his every move.

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3) The smiling film idol loved their totally unquestioning approval.
                                                                    
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4) Basking in the warm welcome, he made an unexpected speech.

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5) Quite moved by their affection, he thanked the devoted fans.
                                                                                          
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