Participles are sometimes confused with verbs because they

Participles are sometimes confused with verbs because they are made up of:

1)verb +  –ing form . This is called PRESENT PARTICIPLE and it has the function of an adjective (not a verb)

Example:  The singing bird is beautiful. The word “singing” modifies the noun “bird” and this sentence can be rewritten as “The bird that sings is beautiful.”

2)Verb+ ed / past participle form. This is called PAST PARTICIPLE and it has also the function of an adjective as it provides information or qualities of a noun.

Example: The wounded dog was crying all night. The word “wounded” modifies the noun “dog” and this sentence can be rewritten as “The dog which was wounded was crying all night”  

to save the day, harry must get past a scary three-headed guard dog.

- "a nonrestrictive clause functions as a modifier to a noun (that is an object, person or concept). these clauses can be described by the following three options: it is set off by comas, it contains a subject and a verbs and it adds nonessential information to the sentence.

for example, in "here is bill gates, who confounded microsoft software company" we can identify "who confounded microsoft software company" as a nonrestrictive clause modifying the noun bill gates. this clause can be describes as a nonrestrictive clause because it is separated by a comma, it adds nonessential information to identify who bill gates is and it must contain both a subject (who) and a verb (confounded)."