Participio

Participio is a non-finite verb form found in many languages, used to convey aspect, voice, or to function as an adjective or noun. Unlike finite verbs, participles do not by themselves mark tense or mood; they combine with auxiliary verbs or appear as modifiers, forming compound tenses, passive constructions, or qualifying phrases.

Most languages recognize two main classes of participles: present (or active) participles and past (or perfect) participles. The present participle often expresses ongoing action or a characteristic associated with a noun, while the past participle generally marks completed action or a state resulting from a previous action. In addition, many languages allow participles to agree with nouns in gender and number when used descriptively.

In English, the present participle ends in -ing (speaking, running) and the past participle has various forms (spoken, eaten, written). Present participles form progressive/continuous tenses with the auxiliary be (is running), while past participles form perfect tenses with have (has spoken) and passive voice with be (was written). Participles also appear in participial phrases, such as Driving quickly, he arrived on time.

In Spanish and other Romance languages, the past participle commonly ends in -ado or -ido (hablar → hablado, comer → comido) and is used with haber to form perfect tenses (he hablado) and with ser to express passive voice or as an adjective (puerta cerrada). The present participle forms exist but are less central; the progressive aspect is typically expressed with the gerund (-ando, -iendo) rather than a separate present participle.

Across languages, participles are versatile tools for linking verbal meaning to time, voice, and description in concise, syntactically flexible ways.