What is present and past participle?
I get confused by these sentences for example:
- I saw the pen keeping on the table.
- I saw the pen kept on the table.
But at the moment the pen is on the table, so which of the sentences above are correct?
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Sign up to join this communityWhat is present and past participle?
I get confused by these sentences for example:
- I saw the pen keeping on the table.
- I saw the pen kept on the table.
But at the moment the pen is on the table, so which of the sentences above are correct?
These participles are not only present and past, they are also active and passive respectively. If you keep a pen, the pen is kept. To apply an active participle (keeping) to the pen is to suggest that the pen is there by its own choice.
Are you using keep here as a synonym of stay, remain? It does mean that in a few idiomatic usages (especially "keep quiet" and "keep [continue] doing"), but not in others, at least in General American dialect; I would not say that my cat keeps on his favorite chair.
Added much later: Though that would explain why some people mis-hear kipping as keeping in the sentence The Norwegian Blue prefers kipping on its back.