Participles and the Absolutive
Three verb-derived forms that behave partly like adjectives and partly like connective glue between clauses — and, together, some of the most frequently printed words in the entire Canon.
Present Participle: "-ing"
Formed with -ant- (surfacing as -anto in the masculine nominative singular, the citation form you'll usually meet), the present participle declines like an ordinary adjective — agreeing in case, number, and gender with whatever noun it describes, using endings close to the a-stem pattern from Lesson 6.
Past Participle: "-ed / -en"
Formed with -ta added directly to the root — often triggering small sandhi adjustments where the root and -ta meet, the way English "sleep" irregularly becomes "slept" rather than "sleeped." The past participle also declines like an adjective, and functions as Pāli's ordinary way of saying "it was said," "it is done," "he is gone" — a completed state, not necessarily an active narration.
said, spoken — past participle of vadati. Neuter vuttaṃ, "it was said," is the exact word behind Sīlaniddesa's own "vuttañhetaṃ paṭisambhidāyaṃ" ("for this was said in the Paṭisambhidā") — you have been reading this form since your first look at our translation, before this course existed.
seen — past participle of passati. The stock phrase diṭṭhe dhamme, "in this very life" (literally "in the seen state/dhamma"), uses this form in the locative.
done, made — past participle of karoti. Compare Lesson 12's aorist akāsi, "did" — same root, two different forms.
The Absolutive (-tvā): "Having Done X..."
An indeclinable form — it never changes for case, number, or gender — built with the suffix -tvā (an alternate, common especially in verse, uses -tvāna or -itvā). It links one completed action to the main verb that follows: "having done X, [then Y happened]." This is one of the most common ways Pāli narrative prose chains events together, in place of English's "and then."
Notice how much of this single sentence is now built entirely from earlier lessons: an accusative noun (Lesson 6/9), an absolutive (this lesson), and an aorist verb (Lesson 12) — three different grammatical categories from three different lessons, combining into one natural, entirely ordinary piece of narrative Pāli. This is what accumulating grammar is for: not eighteen isolated facts, but one increasingly readable language.
Practice: Identify the Form
- vuttaṃ
- disvā
- dhammaṃ desento
- kataṃ
Check your answers
1. Past participle, neuter — "[it was] said."
2. Absolutive — "having seen."
3. Present participle, agreeing with a masculine noun — "teaching the Dhamma" (as in, someone who is teaching it).
4. Past participle, neuter — "[it was] done, made."
Continuing From Here
This closes out Pāli's verb system. Lesson 15 turns to sandhi — the vowel- and consonant-contact rules you've already met in passing (Lesson 3's niggahīta assimilation, Lesson 10's kānassa and kenaṭṭhena) — now given a proper, systematic treatment.