Adjectives ending in '-ed' and '-ing'

Adjectives ending in '-ed' and '-ing'

Do you know the difference between bored and boring? Test what you know with interactive exercises and read the explanation to help you.

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.

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.

annoyedannoying
boredboring
confusedconfusing
disappointeddisappointing
excitedexciting
frightenedfrightening
interestedinteresting
surprisedsurprising
tiredtiring
worriedworrying

Do this exercise to test your grammar again.

Average: 4.4 (300 votes)

Submitted by abenrue on Sat, 07/02/2026 - 10:29

Permalink

I'm so bored about the new politics in Spain.

The movie was so boring because it lasted three hours and could have been wrapped up in 90 minutes.

Submitted by Sahar english on Thu, 05/02/2026 - 17:24

Permalink

I'm really interested in the Ai science, 

but some time it makes my feel annoyed 

but it interesting to work with.

Submitted by Ferluisa on Wed, 04/02/2026 - 07:53

Permalink

The times of the verb confused me. 

But I try don't confusing more with grammar. 

Profile picture for user anhnguyen2807

Submitted by anhnguyen2807 on Sat, 31/01/2026 - 01:39

Permalink

I was so embassared when i saw her

Profile picture for user Iddi1234

Submitted by Iddi1234 on Thu, 22/01/2026 - 16:54

Permalink

I was confused the different between ''ed'' and ''ing'', and how we used them in sentences or at speaking English even grammar but this place is good to learning and make people feel excited to learn English.

Profile picture for user lucie.pav

Submitted by lucie.pav on Mon, 05/01/2026 - 10:30

Permalink

I`m very excited to learn English!  

It was exciting to do exercises !

Submitted by Javier-English on Wed, 31/12/2025 - 00:43

Permalink

I'm so happy to use this platform. It's the best...!!!

Profile picture for user Diego Rengel

Submitted by Diego Rengel on Tue, 30/12/2025 - 02:45

Permalink

I think that learning the present continuous is very interesting.

Submitted by Sheldon on Mon, 29/12/2025 - 04:25

Permalink

I am very interested in speaking English fluently.

Submitted by Ammar Suleyman on Sun, 14/12/2025 - 19:33

Permalink

I am so excited to learn the grammar.