Look at these examples to see how adjectives ending in -ed and -ing are used.
I was really bored in that presentation.
That was a really boring presentation.
Try this exercise to test your grammar.
- Grammar test 1
Read the explanation to learn more.
Grammar explanation
Adjectives that end in -ed (e.g. bored, interested) and adjectives that end in -ing (e.g. boring, interesting) are often confused.
-ed adjectives
Adjectives that end in -ed generally describe emotions – they tell us how people feel.
I was so bored in that lesson, I almost fell asleep.
He was surprised to see Helen after all those years.
She was really tired and went to bed early.
-ing adjectives
Adjectives that end in -ing generally describe the thing that causes the emotion – a boring lesson makes you feel bored.
Have you seen that film? It's really frightening.
I could listen to her for hours. She's so interesting.
I can't sleep! That noise is really annoying!
Here are some adjectives that can have both an -ed and an -ing form.
| annoyed | annoying |
| bored | boring |
| confused | confusing |
| disappointed | disappointing |
| excited | exciting |
| frightened | frightening |
| interested | interesting |
| surprised | surprising |
| tired | tiring |
| worried | worrying |
Do this exercise to test your grammar again.
- Grammar test 2
Hello Ira92
'ashamed' is an adjective, not a past participle. The past participle of the verb 'to shame' is 'shamed'. Otherwise your analysis is correct.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello again Ira92
I understand the question you are asking, but please note that 'ashamed' is always an adjective and never a past participle -- 'shamed' is the past participle of the verb 'shame'.
There are other many other cases where an adjective is formed from the past participle of a verb, i.e. it is identical in form to the past participle -- for example, all of the adjectives in the box above.
Sometimes the grammar of a sentence will make it clear if one of these words is an adjective or a past participle that is part of a passive verb. For example, 'I was annoyed by the noise'. In this case, the phrase 'by the noise' is clearly the agent of the passive verb 'was annoyed'. But we could also say 'I was annoyed due to the noise'. In this case, there is no passive verb, so 'annoyed' is an adjective. Most of the time, in the end the meaning is pretty much the same, so the difference doesn't affect the meaning very much one way or the other.
Hope this helps you make sense of it.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team