A participle is a form of a verb used as an adjective:
Participles behave like adjectives, so they have the same set of endings and grammatical cases. The difference is, you don't use a full participle as a predicate. Also, a participle phrase can precede the noun, though a usual position of such phrase is afterwards:
They are generally considered characteristic of a bookish or formal style. It is why we are only covering them briefly to get you familiar enough with the concept that you'll recognise them when you bump into one when reading a text. This is really just a glimpse of what's there—the course would be incomplete without the participles but you don't have to use them (and, in fact, you're better off not using them, at least when speaking).
Some participles have crystallized into adjectives, too:
Russian verbs have present and past participles, which can be either active or passive (only transitive verbs can have passive participles, of course). These participles are formed from the verb's present stem and the verb's past stem.
In the present tense, the suffix used depends on the conjugation. Here is the list of suffixes:
| ACTIVE | PASSIVE | |
|---|---|---|
| PRESENT | ущ(ющ) , ащ (ящ) | ом(ем) , им |
| PAST | ш, вш | нн(н), енн(ен), т |
Here are some examples. Try to determine which kind of participle you see: иду́щий, едя́щий, даю́щий, говоря́щий, чита́ющий, чита́емый, чита́вший, продаю́щий, прося́щий, спра́шивающий, купи́вший, ку́пленный, прода́вший, про́данный.
There are actual rules that cover which verbs get which past suffix. However, teaching the formation of an arbitrary participle would be an overkill for this particular course. At this level, it is enough that you are able to identify them.
Note that past passive participles ("a book that has been read") are only formed from perfective verbs in modern Russian.
Passive participles can be short, like adjectives, which is most useful for past participles. The agent, if needed, is in the Instrumental (such a use sounds quite formal):