> Present and past participles are a common distinctive feature of Indo-European languages, and their use to form specific aspects of the present and past tense

> Present and past participles are a common distinctive feature of Indo-European languages, and their use to form specific aspects of the present and past tenses in English is a common feature across Germanic languages. They are used in Romance languages as well. Half the tenses in French are auxiliary+participle combinations (Latin even has future participles).