A present participle is a verb form that ends in "-ing" and is used in progressive tenses to express ongoing or in-progress actions or states at a specific time in the past, present, or future. It is formed from the root form of a verb by adding "-ing" to the end of the verb. Present participles can be used in various ways, including:

• Continuous form of a verb: The present participle is used as part of the continuous form of a verb. For example, "I am eating ice cream".

• Adjective: The present participle can function as an adjective to modify nouns and pronouns. For example, "the barking dog woke up the entire neighborhood".

• Two actions at the same time: When two actions occur at the same time, and are done by the same person or thing, we can use a present participle to describe one of them. For example, "whistling to himself, he walked down the road".

It is important to note that present participles should not be confused with gerunds, which are nouns formed from verbs. Gerunds also end in "-ing," but they function as nouns, while present participles function as adjectives or used in verb tenses.