Present vs past participle

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

In the past, the search for the other worlds was different because of two factors.
First, planets are tiny objects comparing/compared with stars:the sun,a typical star, is 300,000 times more massive than the Earth. Second, planets do not shine but only reflect light dimly from stars.

Which one in bold is correct? And why? Would you please explain to me?

2

For me, comparing is the correct one. All I can tell is the present participle carrying the active meaning, while the past participle tends to be passive meaning.
The original clause should be “First, planets are tiny objects which compare with stars…”

As Professor Michael Swan said on Practical English usage :
Sometime the past participle can be used as active meaning but some rare exceptional cases . That also got me headache.

Ex : A fallen leaf (a leaf that has fallen) . advanced students (students who have advanced to a high level.
An escaped prisoner, developed country.

past participle can be used as active meaning (only with adverb) :
A much-travelled man, a well-read person (NOT a read person).

active past participle can be used after be : those curtains are badly faded, We are all grown up now.
The words : recovered, stopped, finished are used after be, not usually before noun
Why are all those cars stopped at the crossroads ? (Not stopped car)
I’ll be finished in a few minutes
Those days are gone now.
I hope you are fully recovered from your operation.

3

Hi,

You need ‘compared’ because it means: when they are compared. The point is that the planets are not doing the comparing themselves but are being compared.

4

Thanks for correcting me, Alan :). it seems how to use a participle correctly is a hard question, I mean there are too many exceptional cases.

5

I’m not sure that this is an exceptional case? It seems to follow your primary rule of “the present participle carrying the active meaning, while the past participle tends to be passive meaning”.

6

Even in its earliest days, the United States was a very large country, streching/streched over 1600 kilometers of coastline.

 I have always been confused about the present and past participle.

 My teacher said that "streching" is correct here but he could not explain why...?
 As Waiyin Cheng and Dozy said  "the present participle carrying the active meaning, while the past participle tends to be passive meaning".
   But, I think, the passive meaning is expressed here. Is this an exceptional case?
7

Hi,

The reason for ‘stretching’ is that it describes the physical size of the country. It would be the same as saying something like: The village is in a rural situation lying in a deep valley. In your example ‘stretched’ would suggest that someone/something had physically stretched the country, which is clearly absurd.

Alan

8

Hi, ALAN! Thank you for the reply!

   Sincerely,
           Foreigner
9

To ALAN!

Also, is the following rule under the same category, that is to say, are they the same?

We can also use -ing clause to say what happens all the time, not just a particular time. For example:

   The road connecting the two villages is very narrow.
10

Yes.

11

Alan, I have a question:

I got to know to change the sentence with "-ing clause" to the sentence with the relative clause. For example: 

 The road [b]connecting [/b]the two villages is very narrow      
 The road [b]which (or that) connects [/b]two villages is very narrow
 I am sure it is grammatically correct!

 But how to change the following sentence to the sentence with the relative clauce?

Even in its earliest days, the United States was a very large country, streching over 1600 kilometers of coastline.

Many thanks..
12

That would be: which stretched …

13

Dear Alan, another difficult question (for me):

[b]Situated/situating [/b]in the countryside, the villa had a wonderful view.

And now what kind of rule works here?

14

‘Situated’ is an adjective and so the verb function doesn’t apply here.

15

“Participles” is really one of the complicated grammar points in English.
If I put the main clause at the beginning of the sentence,then the following would be right?:

 The villa had a wonderful view, situating in the countryside.
16

‘Situating’ is not a verb and doesn’t exist.

17

Hello, dear ALAN!

The invention of the printed/printing prose was one of the most important events in the history of the world.

Please could you help me with the correct version?..

Many thanks

18

I suspect that this should be
The invention of the printing press was one of the most important events in the history of the world.

If ‘prose’ truly is correct, then it would need to be ‘printed prose’ (no article), but ‘invention’ and ‘events’ then seems to be a strange choice.
Possibly:
The ability to produce printed prose was one of the most important acquisitions in the history of the world.

19

Hi Foreigner,

‘Prose’ is defined as generally written or spoken language. As is suggested above, you have probably confused ‘prose’ with ‘press’. In line with other questions you have asked you need ‘printing press’ because the machine (the printing press) is doing the printing. Contrast that with ‘the printed/the spoken word’, both telling you what has been done to the word.

Alan