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 (214 votes)
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Profile picture for user Ahmed-Hussien

Submitted by Ahmed-Hussien on Mon, 03/07/2023 - 13:18

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actually, I understood the difference between adjectives ending in '-ed' and adjectives ending in '-ing- ,But in the first sentence the pronoun for the dog was she
do we use pronouns he and she with animals or we use it ?

Hi Ahmed-Hussien,

Both "she/he" and "it" are used. People tend to use "she" or "he" if the speaker has some significant relationship with the animal (e.g. it is a family pet).

Jonathan

LearnEnglish team

Submitted by jhonertk on Tue, 27/06/2023 - 13:11

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the lesson is very practice

Submitted by Ahmed_Elkhodary on Sat, 24/06/2023 - 08:11

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It's really exciting lesson, I am very excited

Submitted by Ro Htan on Fri, 16/06/2023 - 14:55

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Traveling abroad is thrilling to me and it makes me interesting.

Submitted by KirkWAI on Tue, 23/05/2023 - 02:52

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Hi,there
I have confuesed about the answear That shop never has any customers. I'm ___ it's still there. Why use surprised not use surprising. I choosed surprising because the shop still there make me feel surprising, -ing generally describe the thing that causes the emotion. Can you explain what is the reason?

Many thanks

Hi KirkWAI,

As you say, the -ing form generally describe the thing that causes the emotion. Here, the shop no having customers causes the emotion. The -ed form describes the person which feels the emotion. Here, the speaker feels the emotion. Thus, we can say this:

The shop has no customers but it is still there. This is surprising. I am surprised.

 

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team