Can any one of you tell me what exactly a past participle is and provide examples?It might sound silly and I didnt know where to post. Its a...

Wow, you sound like me when it comes to grammar! I teach
English as well, and quake when it comes to teaching technical grammar. It is one thing
to recognize or know what something is, but a completely different thing when it comes
to defining it for others and providing exemplary
examples.

To begin with an
example:

readability="6">

Crying, he stumbled away from his wrecked
bicycle.

Okay, the past
participle is "wrecked" and it modifies "bicycle". Here, "crying" is also a participle,
but a present one.

A participle is a verbal that is used as
an adjective and most often ends in -ing or
-ed. The term verbal indicates that a
participle, like the other two kinds of verbals, is based on a verb and therefore
expresses action or a state of being. However, since they function as adjectives,
participles modify nouns or pronouns. There are two types of participles: present
participles and past participles. Present participles end in -ing.
Past participles end in -ed, -en,
-d, -t, -n, or
-ne as in the words asked,
eaten, saved, dealt,
seen, and
gone.

Now if you are anything like me,
this definition makes no sense! You simply have to find a way for it to make sense and
then you will be more effective in teaching it.

So here is
my "cheat", let us go back to my example:

readability="6">

Crying, he stumbled away from his wrecked
bicycle.

"He stumbled away."
This is a complete sentence. Participles help to define how things are using verbals
(verb forms). We know what verbs are: actions. Verbals are verb words used in a
different fashion.

He was crying as he stumbled away. The
main verb is stumbled given this is what he did. "Crying" is how he stumbled away,
therefore is a present participle. "Wrecked" is the action that describes the bike-
therefore a participle and since it ends in "ed" it is a past
participle.

One website that I always turn to is Owl at
Purdue. It is wonderful for those tough grammar and writing questions. I am constantly
using it and passing it out to students.

I hope that I did
not confuse you further. Good luck.