Is a participal a different spelling of a word?

Answer 1

In English, a participle is specifically a form of a verb that is created by adding the suffix "-ing".

In fact, there are two such forms.

• If the word with "-ing" is used as an adjective, to modify or describe something or someone, then it's a participle. For example, in the sentence "I saw the boy reading in the corner", "reading" is a participle because it tells us something about the boy.
• If the word with "-ing" is used as a noun, to name an activity, then it's a gerund. For example, in the sentence "You can learn a lot by reading", "reading" is a gerund because because it names the activity you perform when you read.

In many languages, the gerund and the participle have different forms so it's easier to tell them apart. In fact, that was true in early forms of the English language itself, where the participle had the suffix "-end" and the gerund had the suffix "-ing". But languages change over time, and one of the changes that happened in English was that the participle took on the "-ing" ending of the gerund, with the result that they look alike today.