Skill 3 : Present Participle

Present Participles can cause confusion in the Structure section of the TOEFL test because a present participle can be either an adjective or  a part of verb. A present participle is the -ing form of the verb be.

The train is arriving at the station now.

In this sentence, arriving is part of the verb  because it is accompanied by is.
A present participle is an adjective when it is not accompanied by some form of the verb be.

The train arriving at the station now is an hour  late.

In this sentence, arriving is an adjective and not part of the verb because it is not accompanied by some form of be. The verb in this sentence is is.
The following example shows how a present participle can be confused with the verb in the Structure of the TOEFL test.

Example :
The film......appearing at the local theater is my favorite.

1. noun
2. is
3. it
4. was

 In this example, if you look at only the first word of the sentence, it appears that film is the subject and appearing is a part of the verb. If you think that appearing is part of, you might choose answer (2) is, or answer (4) was, to complete the verb. However, these two answers are incorrect because appearing is not part of verb. You should recognize that appearing is a participial adjective rather than a verb because there is another verb in the sentence (is). In this sentence, there is a complete subject (film)  and the complete verb (is), so this sentence does not need another subject or verb. The best answer to this question is answer (1).

The following chart outlines the key information you should remember about present participle.
" A present participle is the -ing form of the verb. The present participle can be (1) part of the verb or (2) an adjective. It is  part of the verb when it is accompanied by some form of the verb be. It is an adjective  when it is not accompanied by some form of verb be."