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How to differentiate between verbs and modifiers?
When the past and present participle forms of the verb are used as verbs, they often need helping verbs. When they are used as adjectives, they do not use helping verbs. Look at the following examples in which the past and present participles are functioning as verbs. They need helping verbs.
Examples:
Rice was sown in the month of June and was harvested in October.
The car was battered by hail.
She is standing next to a tall gentleman.
Note that the present participle i.e. the –ing form of the verb always needs helping verbs when functioning as a verb. In a present participial modifier form, it will not have a helping verb. So it is easy to differentiate whether a present participle is functioning as a verb or a modifier.
But there could be confusion regarding the use of past participle functioning as a verb versus functioning as a modifier.
The boy was chased by the dog. (verb + helping verb, passive voice)
Chased is the verb with the helping verb ‘was’. The sentence is in passive voice since the action was performed on the boy by the dog. The boy did not perform the action.
The boy chased by the dog felt frantic later. (modifier)
Here ‘chased by the dog’ is a past participial phrase, a modifier. It describes the boy we are talking about. He is the boy who was chased by the dog. ‘chased by the dog’ is modifying the boy. The action was not performed by the boy. It was performed on the boy so it can be used to describe him. The verb of the sentence is ‘felt’.
We do not use a helping verb here since chased is acting as a modifier. So we have dropped the helping verb and this shows that it is a modifier. We use past participial phrases with passive meaning.
Consider when the verb is in active voice.
The dog chased the boy. (active voice verb)
Here, the verb is ‘chased’. The chasing action is being performed by the dog. That is why we are not using a helping verb.
We cannot use chased as a participle modifying the dog if the action of ‘chasing’ is being performed by the dog.
Hence, in case of confusion about whether the –ed verb is being used as a verb or a modifier, look at who is performing the action. If the person/thing performing the action is being modified, we know that the –ed verb is acting as a verb only, not as a modifier. Remember that participial phrases with past participle are used with passive meaning.
