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From the explanation about participle phrases from this British Council's page, it lists some past participles such as gone, read, seen, walked, etc..

Having said that, I tried to construct sentences with the past participle form of the verb "walk". And I came up with the following sentence (let's call this one the first sentence):

Walked into the conference room, he saw a very beautiful lady sitting near the window.

With the following meaning (let's call this the original sentence):

After he walked into the conference room, he saw a very beautiful lady sitting near the window.

I know that I can use the present participle form of the verb to construct a new sentence with the same meaning, so it looks like this:

Walking into the conference room, he saw a very beautiful lady sitting near the window.

However, my question is: What does it mean for a native speaker when they hear the first sentence (i.e did it change the meaning of the original sentence or not). And if the meaning has been changed then can we use the past participle form for the verbs such as "walk", "sit", "meet", etc.?

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  • I think "All the/his tasks finished, he..." would be more idiomatic (meaning 'When all his tasks were finished'). This doesn't have to be in casual speech.
    – Kate Bunting
    Commented Oct 4, 2022 at 12:21
  • "Finished all the tasks" definitely sounds odd and un-idiomatic. It looks like you've forgotten a bit, and maybe there should be a noun before finished. Why do you ask about it? Are you just creating random sequences of words and asking if they're idiomatic, or have you seen this used somewhere?
    – Stuart F
    Commented Oct 4, 2022 at 12:39
  • @StuartF It's not a random sequence, I constructec it according to the explanation about participle clauses here: learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/grammar/b1-b2-grammar/… . The page lists some past participles such as: gone, read, seen, walked, etc.. So "walked" is used in this question.
    – Khanh Tran
    Commented Oct 5, 2022 at 7:17
  • @StuartF I've updated the question, added more details and als updated the example sentence.
    – Khanh Tran
    Commented Oct 5, 2022 at 7:44
  • You can certainly do this kind of thing sometimes . "Clothed in formal academic robes, the faculty marched in." But the tense is not shown by the participle. "Clothed in formal academic robes, the faculty is marching in." "Clothed in formal academic robes, the faculty will march in."
    – GEdgar
    Commented Oct 5, 2022 at 12:18

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And I came up with the following sentence (let's call this one the first sentence):

Walked into the conference room, he saw a very beautiful lady sitting near the window.

With the following meaning:

After he had walked into the conference room, he saw a very beautiful lady sit near the window.

Your problem is that the first sentence does not have the meaning of the original sentence:

Walked into the room = He was walked into the room... = Someone held him tightly and forced him to walk into the room.

Walking into the room means

"When he was walking into the room".

There are two types or participle: the past participle (verbed) and the present participle (verbing)

The past participle carries the passive (or causative) meaning:

Left by his friends to guard the camp, he loaded his gun. = He had been left by his friends to guard the camp; he loaded his gun.

The present participle carries the dynamic meaning:

Leaving his friends, he went home. He left his friends, and he went home

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  • Thank you for your answer!
    – Khanh Tran
    Commented Oct 5, 2022 at 12:47

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