1). Summary
A participle is an adjective which shows some verbal feeling. In English most present participles end in -ing, past participles often end in -ed or -en and future particles do not exist as such in English.
In Esperanto participles end in -anta (present), -inta (past) and, of course, -onta (future). e.g.
They are adjectives and so take endings so as to agree with their nouns e.g.
la kantantaj knabinoj (the singing girls).
One must be careful to distinguish between a normal adjective and the more active participle e.g.
floro (a flower); flora (flowery); floranta (flowering)
As participles are part adjective, part verb they are also capable of commanding a direct object. To illustrate this we are going to use some poetry- the second verse of La Espero, a poem by Ludwig Zamenhof which has been put to music and become the 'national' anthem of Esperantujo.
Ne al glavo sangon soifanta
^Gi la homan tiras familion,
Al la mond' eterne miltanta
^Gi promesas sankton harmonion.
(The ^Gi of the second line follows from the first verse and represents 'a new feeling which has entered the world i.e. Esperanto)
Poetry is difficult to follow in any language at first reading or hearing because of its strange word order. Nevertheless the above is easy to translate (at least into prose!).
It (Esperanto) pulls the human family, (Line 2)
Not to a sword thirsting for blood (Line 1)
It promises holy harmony (Line 4)
To the world eternally battling (Line 3)
Notice the participle which is taking a direct object :
glavo soifanta sangon (a sword thirsting for blood).
In poetry (and usually only in poetry in order to help the scansion) some omissions are permitted :
la can become l' after a vowel (and is pronounced with the previous word e.g. de l' is pronounced del).
A noun can drop the final -o (e.g. mond'). The stress remains where it would have been if the -o was still present.
No other omissions are permitted.
Before moving on I'm sure you would like to see the first verse of this great poem :
En la mondon venis nova sento,
Tra la mondo iras forta voko,
Per flugiloj de facila vento
Nun de loko flugu ^gi al loko.
Prose translation :
A new feeling has come into the world, a strong call goes through the world on wings of light breeze (easy wind). Now from place to place let it fly.
(Such a translation, of course, gives no feeling of the poetry of the original!!)
2). The Three Active Participles
Let us look in more detail at the three participles.
Vezuvo estas erupciinta vulkano.
(Vesuvius is an a volcano which has previously erupted (a having-erupted volcano).
It erupted famously near Pompeii in 79 AD.
Strombolio estas ^ciama erupcianta vulkano.
(Stromboli is a permanently erupting volcano).
24 hours/day.
Dan^gerego! Etno estas erupcionta vulkano
(Great danger! Etna is an about-to-erupt volcano)
The participle is used in the present regardless of the tense of the main verb if its event occurs at the same time as the action of the main verb e.g.
Nia buso eniris sur la pramon atendantan ^ce la kajo. (Our bus went onto the ferry standing at the quay)
The participle (atendantan) is present as it happened as the same time as the verb eniris (even though that is in the past).
Certain participles are in very common use e.g. venonta (coming, next); pasinta (past, previous).