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Participial Phrase Practice (B2) - English Grammar Quiz

⏱ Time: 07:30 📝 Questions: 15 📊 Level: B2 📚 Type: Grammar ⭐ XP: up to +16 (on pass)

Challenge yourself: 15 Participial Phrase questions, 7 minutes, Level B2. Can you get a perfect score? The questions start straightforward and build to tricky edge cases. Read every explanation to pick up tips that textbooks often skip.

⏱ You have 07:30 to answer 15 questions. The timer only starts when you click Begin.

Q1  15
Q1 15

Question 1: ___ through the busy market, the traveller noticed many colourful stalls.

Question 1 options
'Walking' is correct because a present participial phrase uses the base verb + '-ing' to describe the subject's simultaneous action. 'Walked' is a simple past tense verb, 'To walk' is an infinitive, and 'Having walked' implies a completed prior action, not a simultaneous one.
Q2 15

Question 2: ___ by the storm, the old bridge was closed to traffic for several weeks.

Question 2 options
'Damaged' is correct because a past participial phrase uses the past participle form of the verb to describe what happened to the noun before the main action. 'Damaging' is a present participle and would suggest the bridge is doing the damaging. 'Having damaged' implies the bridge damaged something else. 'Being damaged' would require a continuous passive construction in a different context.
Q3 15

Question 3: A participial phrase acts as an adjective in a sentence, modifying a noun or pronoun.

Question 3 options
True. Participial phrases function as adjectives — they describe or give more information about a noun or pronoun in the sentence, even though they are formed from verbs.
Q4 15

Question 4: What is the primary purpose of a participial phrase in a sentence?

Question 4 options
'To describe a noun by giving additional information about it' is correct because participial phrases function as adjectives, modifying nouns. They do not replace the main verb, indicate future intention, or connect two independent clauses.
Q5 15

Question 5: Arrange the words to make a correct sentence:

Question 5 options
  • immediately
  • the hikers
  • set up camp
  • Exhausted from the long journey,

Drag items or use arrows to arrange them in the correct order.

The correct order is 'Exhausted from the long journey, the hikers set up camp immediately.' The present participial phrase 'Exhausted from the long journey' comes first and is separated by a comma before the noun it modifies ('the hikers'), followed by the main clause.
Q6 15

Question 6: Which sentence uses a participial phrase correctly?

Question 6 options
'Gripping the steering wheel tightly, the driver navigated the icy road.' is correct because the participial phrase 'Gripping the steering wheel tightly' is placed directly before the noun it modifies ('the driver'). In the other options, the participial phrase is either misplaced or used as a main verb rather than a modifier.
Q7 15

Question 7: A student writes: 'I saw a man ___ a red umbrella near the fountain.' Which option correctly completes this sentence with a participial phrase?

Question 7 options
'carrying' is correct because it forms a present participial phrase that describes the man's action simultaneously occurring with the speaker seeing him. 'He carried' is a full clause requiring a conjunction. 'To carry' is an infinitive. 'Carried' alone would form a past participial phrase but changes the meaning to 'a man who had been carried', which is illogical here.
Q8 15

Question 8: Which sentence correctly uses a participial phrase rather than a gerund phrase?

Question 8 options
'Singing loudly, Maria filled the whole room with joy.' is correct because the '-ing' phrase modifies the noun 'Maria' (acting as an adjective), making it a participial phrase. In 'Singing loudly is Maria's greatest talent', the '-ing' phrase acts as the subject (a noun), making it a gerund phrase.
Q9 15

Question 9: Put the words/clauses in the correct order:

Question 9 options
  • having prepared the sauce earlier,
  • The chef,
  • to the pasta.
  • added it

Drag items or use arrows to arrange them in the correct order.

The correct order is 'The chef, having prepared the sauce earlier, added it to the pasta.' The participial phrase 'having prepared the sauce earlier' is placed between commas in the middle of the sentence, directly after the noun it modifies ('The chef').
Q10 15

Question 10: The team, ___ after months of hard training, finally won the regional championship.

Question 10 options
'exhausted' is correct because it forms a past participial phrase placed mid-sentence between commas, modifying 'the team'. 'Was exhausted' is a full predicate that would create a run-on sentence. 'Exhausting' would mean the team was causing others to be tired. 'Having exhausted' implies the team exhausted something else, which doesn't fit the context.
Q11 15

Question 11: Which statement about participial phrase placement is true?

Question 11 options
'A participial phrase must be placed close to the noun it modifies to avoid confusion.' is correct. Placing a participial phrase away from its noun creates a misplaced modifier or dangling phrase, which makes the sentence ambiguous or illogical. Participial phrases can appear at the beginning, middle, or end of a sentence.
Q12 15

Question 12: Combine these two sentences using a participial phrase: 'She had read all the reports. She was ready to present her conclusions.' → ___, she was ready to present her conclusions.

Question 12 options
'Having read all the reports' is correct because 'having + past participle' forms a perfect participial phrase showing a completed prior action. 'Reading all the reports' suggests a simultaneous action rather than a completed one. 'Having been reading all the reports' is a perfect continuous form that is unnecessarily complex. 'Read all the reports' is missing a connecting word to form the participial phrase.
Q13 15

Question 13: Match each sentence to the correct grammar label.

Question 13 options
Running through the park, the children laughed loudly.
Broken by years of neglect, the fence finally collapsed.
Having submitted the application, James felt a sense of relief.
Turning the corner quickly, the café suddenly came into view.
Dangling modifier (phrase does not logically modify the subject)
Perfect participial phrase (completed prior action)
Present participial phrase (simultaneous action)
Past participial phrase (describing a resulting state)

Select an item on the left, then tap its match on the right.

Present participial phrases use '-ing' for simultaneous actions; past participial phrases use past participle forms for states or prior actions; perfect participial phrases use 'having + past participle' for completed prior actions; a dangling modifier occurs when the participial phrase does not logically connect to the subject of the main clause.
Q14 15

Question 14: A participial phrase that is not placed next to the noun it modifies is called a dangling phrase or misplaced modifier, and it is considered a grammatical error.

Question 14 options
True. When a participial phrase is separated from the noun it describes, it becomes a misplaced or dangling modifier. This creates ambiguity because readers may associate the phrase with the wrong noun.
Q15 15

Question 15: A writer wants to show that an action happened BEFORE the action in the main clause. Which sentence best expresses this meaning?

Question 15 options
'Having reviewed all the evidence, the lawyer made her closing argument.' uses 'having + past participle', which is the perfect participial phrase form specifically used to show that one action was completed before another. 'Reviewing all the evidence' suggests a simultaneous action. The other options use full clause constructions rather than participial phrases.