Participles dey serve two purposes for English language:

1. Dem dey act as adjectives
2. Dem dey help to form verb tenses

For Naija Pidgin, participles dey only act as adjectives. We no dey use dem form tenses. Wen we dey form tenses for Naija Pidgin, we dey only use di bare infinitive/base form of verbs.

Participles as adjectives

Some example sentences wey dey use participles as adjectives déy below:

• Yu don inhale laughing gas before?
• I go like buy flying car wen I get money.
• Roasted corn dey slap with coconut.
• Broken glass déy di floor.

Participial phrases

Participial phrases na phrases wey dey use di participle form of verb to describe noun. Dem be type of adjective phrase. One example of participial phrase na “Launched in the first quarter of last year” from di English sentence “Launched in the first quarter of last year, the product has amassed over a million paid subscribers.”

As yu for don notice, di example sentence déy for English rather dan for Naija Pidign. Dis na becos Naija Pidgin no get participial phrases. If yu want express di same idea for Naija Pidgin, yu gat use anoda grammatical strategy like relative clauses or full/finite subordinate clauses.

So yu fit translate di above example sentence like so for Naija Pidgin:

Di product, wey dem launch for first quarter of last year, don amass over one million paid subscribers.

Some more examples déy below:

Using relative clauses

• Known for his flair, Emeka always finds one-on-one situations where he can showcase his football skills.
  • Emeka, wey déy popular for im flair, dey always find one-on-one situations wer e go fit showcase im football skills.
• Frightened by the banging sound, the girl hid under the bed.
  • Di girl, wey bin déy frightened by di banging sound, bin hide under di bed.
• Waiting for his parents to arrive, Adamu played videos games in the living room.
  • Adamu, wey bin dey wait mek im parents arrive, bin dey play video games for di living room.
• The man wearing the pink shirt is my brother.
  • Di man, wey dey wear pink shirt, na my brother.

Using full/finite subordinate clauses

• My friend found me searching for my keys at the office.
  • My friend bin find me as I dey search for my keys for di office.
• Not knowing whether it would work, the computer programmer ran his software for the first time.
  • Di computer programmer bin run im software for di first time, even though e no sabi weda e go work.
• Having eaten authentic jollof in Nigeria, Emily stopped enjoying what was on offer in America.
  • Emily bin stop to dey enjoy wetin déy on offer for America after she chop authentic jollof for Naija.
• Dressed in the outfit chosen by her parents, Sade covered her face so people wouldn’t see her.
  • Sade bin cover ha face mek people no see ha as she bin wear di outfit wey ha parents choose.

Gerund phrases

Gerund phrases na phrases wey consist of gerund and any modifiers or objects wey déy associated with di gerund. Dem dey function as noun for sentence. Yu fit confuse participial phrases with gerund phrases becos both of dem dey use present participles (i.e. di verb form wey dey end in “ing”).

E déy very straightforward to translate sentences wey get gerund from English to Naija Pidgin. For example:

• Diving is what I do in my free time.
  • Diving na wetin I dey do for my free time.

Wen yu dey deal with gerund phrases, yu fit restructure di sentence like so to make am more idiomatic:

• Running every morning is what keeps me healthy.
  • Wetin dey keep me healthy be sey I dey run every morning.