P ARTICIPLES IN V ERB F ORMS Several tensesare formed by adding auxiliaryor helping verbs to participles I was painting the barn after I had walked a mile Seethe entry on tenses and the related entries on speci c tenses for more information on the formation, names, and functions of tenses made from participles see also conjugation. Parts of speech. The parts of speech—the grammatical elements that go into sentences—are listed below. Each one has its own entry explaining what it is, what rules are associated with it, and how it is properly and improperly used. The entries also include examples of good and bad usage, discussions of how to improve writing by using speci c parts of speech or using them better, and references to other entries that are related to each part of speech.