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I found the girl screaming in pain. This is the reduced form of the sentence, I found the girl who was screaming in pain or I found that the girl was screaming in pain. Anyway my question is not about what the sentence is reduced from. My question is regarding to the word 'screaming'. This is the present perticiple form of the word scream. Is it used here as an adjective as it modifies 'the girl'?

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Yes, 'screaming' is a present participle functioning as an adjective - you are describing the girl. Your sentence has a similar meaning to "I found the girl who was screaming in pain" (who/which and am/is/are/was/were can often be deleted together).

But "I found that the girl was screaming in pain" is a different sentence with a different rule. Here, you can only delete "that" > "I found the girl was screaming in pain".

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  • Ok. So a present perticiple form can be used as an adjective. In the sentence, our government is oppressive, can we replace the adjective oppressive with the present perticiple 'oppressing'? But in that case meaning of the sentence is different. Our government is oppressive means our government oppresses while our government is oppressing means something different. Isn't it? My question is can we use all the present perticiple form as adjective? Feb 3, 2020 at 9:25
  • Present participle verbs can be used as adjectives, but some work better than others. "Our government is oppressing" just doesn't sound right to me. Possibly it's because "oppressive" is a strong and frequently used adjective by itself. Possibly it's because the verb "oppress" 'wants' direct object: "Our government is oppressing its people". A similar verb is "impress": "Our government is impressive" v "Our government is impressing people worldwide by its measures to combat climate change". (Also "expressive" and "expressing".
    – Sydney
    Feb 5, 2020 at 10:04
  • I saw him smiling. According to the answer you gave, 'smiling' acts here as an adjective, right? It's shortened form of ' I saw him who was smiling'. Right? Jun 1, 2020 at 11:37

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