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.

Grammar test 1

Grammar test 1: Adjectives ending in '-ed' and '-ing'

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

Grammar test 2: Adjectives ending in '-ed' and '-ing'

Average: 4.4 (238 votes)
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Submitted by The exiled on Tue, 21/01/2025 - 14:14

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Where is my comment

Hello The exiled,

All comments on the site are pre-moderated, which means that one of the team reads them before they are published on the site. This is so we can keep the site free of spam and trolling. Comments are checked every day at least once so there shouldn't be too much of a delay.

 

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

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Submitted by Nyamzaya on Fri, 03/01/2025 - 07:47

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learned vital things

Submitted by Fatima-mohamed. on Sun, 08/12/2024 - 08:30

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This lesson was really exciting to me 💕

Submitted by johnnyjoestars on Mon, 14/10/2024 - 16:35

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the best lesson i ever learn

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Submitted by wai phyo hlaing on Sun, 06/10/2024 - 09:46

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please , check my answer correct or not correct.

1. The movie is a really boring for me.
2. She's is disappointed for her job.
3. I'm very tried .so I want to bed early.
4. Physic major is a really interesting subject.so I am not boring .

Hello wai phyo hlaing,

There are a few mistakes in some of your sentences, but I can confirm that you've used the adjectives in sentences 1-3 correctly.

In sentence 4, 'interesting' is correct, but you should say 'I'm not bored' (instead of 'boring') since it is a feeling you have.

Does that make sense?

Best wishes,
Kirk
LearnEnglish team

1.The movie is really boring for me. (The word "a" should be removed.)

2. She's disappointed with her job. ("Is" is unnecessary, and "for" should be changed to "with.")

3.  I'm very tired, so I want to go to bed early. ("Tried" should be "tired," and "to bed" is needed after "go.")

4. Physics major is a really interesting subject, so I am not bored. ("Physic" should be "Physics," and "boring" should be "bored" when referring to yourself.)