I'm not a grammar expert, but here's an explanation online: http://www.englishforums.com/English/Ge ... r/post.htm

Also, remember, the GMAT will never tes you on the names or types of grammar. I'd say 99% of the people taking the GMAT don't know the different between a Gerund and a Present Participle. Buuuut, if this will help you with your studies, and help you get questions right, then by all means, learn about it!

Good luck
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Past participles are formed out of passive sentences, but they too can act as adverb or adjective, i.e. the same as present participles.

Here you have two sentences:
Soldier killed the intruders. Intruders had guns.

Turn the first sentence into passive: Soldier killed the intruders into :- Intruders were killed by the soldier.

Now remove the subject and the form of "be". The verb "be" has 8 forms: is, am, are, was, were, be, been, being.

so you are left with "killed by the soldier".

Tag it into the second sentence: Intruders had guns.

You get: Intruders killed by the soldier had guns.

BTW: The past participle phrase acts as adjective in the above sentence.

To be continued........

gmatpunjabi,

it might be easier if you said exactly what is not clear to you.

To throw in some of my help, I will first explain about what someone79 meant by saying restrictive and non-restrictive modifier. You can also call them essential and non-essential modifier.

Modifier is a phrase or clause that changes/describes a noun. Modifier can be essential or non-essential

An essential modifier is a phrase or clause of the sentence that describes a noun and is crucial part of the sentence because without essential modifier you cannot understand the sentence.

A non-essential modifier is a phrase or clause that describes a noun but if you removed it from the sentence you would still be able to understand the sentence.

Adjective is something that describes a noun or pronoun. Example: Beautiful cat - the adjective is word beautiful.

Adverb is something that describes a verb. Example: He beautifully painted that canvas - the adverb is beautifully.

Note that adjective and adverbs are also considered modifiers.

Did this help you a little bit?
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You mean Present and Past Participle phrase?

Before I try to explain it to you I have to tell you that I edited my previous post. I am bringing this up in order to make sure you are not confused. In my edited sentence, I initially wrote "essential modifier is a noun of phrase..." and corrected it to" essential modifier is a noun or phrase..."

The mistake is obvious, you have probably noticed already by yourself. I just want to make sure that I did not provide you with a bad advice.

Anyway, as far as the participles are concerned it is really not that hard. Someone97 provided you with an example, so I am going to use his in order to help. He wrote this:

Cat is sitting on the desk. Cat was eating bread.

First of all, notice that these are two sentences, with two subjects and two verbs. Now, the whole thing behind participle phrases (in the second example) that is probably making you confused is that they are not verbs but actually act as adjectives. Why? Because they describe nouns. Check out the second example.

Cat sitting on the desk was eating bread.

First, the subject is "Cat"
Second, the verb is "was eating"
Third, but kind of unnecessary to mention, "bread" is an object.

so what is "sitting on the desk"? It is a present participle phrase because it modifies (describes) the "Cat". Someone79 said that this sentence helps you single out a particular cat. Imagine if you had a cat on the floor, a cat on the TV, a cat on the sofa etc. Now you say, cat sitting on the desk was eating bread, and you know exactly which cat ate bread.

It is of the essence that you do not confuse present participle phrases with gerund. They are easy to confuse because they end with -ing form. You just need to know that gerund behaves as a noun, and present participle phrase (as well as past participle phrase) behaves as an adjective.
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That clears up everything Thank You!