Past Participle

1. A tree, fallen across the track, delayed the train.

2. The traveler, blinded by the snow, lost his way.

3. The horses, frightened by the electric car, dashed up the street.

In these sentences the words fallen, blinded, and frightened make clear their verb force by showing us that something had happened to the tree, the traveler, and the horses.

Action must have taken place to produce states of being fallen, blinded, or frightened.

We can also think of the fallen tree, the blinded traveler, and the frightened horses.

We are sure, therefore, that fallen, blinded, and frightened are participles, because they have the double force of the verb and ot the adjective.

We not only see that action is expressed by these words, but we see also that they express past action.

They are therefore past participles.

A past participle is a participle that represents an action or state as completed.