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Adjectives with '-ing' and '-ed'
Level: beginner
A lot of adjectives are made from verbs by adding -ing or -ed:
-ing adjectives
The commonest -ing adjectives are:
| amusing annoying boring disappointing exciting interesting |
frightening tiring shocking surprising worrying |
If you say something is interesting, you mean it interests you:
I read a very interesting article in the newspaper today.
If you say something is terrifying, you mean it terrifies you:
That Dracula film was absolutely terrifying.
-ed adjectives
The commonest -ed adjectives are:
| annoyed bored closed delighted disappointed |
excited frightened tired worried |
If something bores you, you can say you feel bored.
We had nothing to do. We were really bored.
If something terrifies you, you can say you are terrified.
I didn't really enjoy the Dracula film. Most of the time I was terrified.
- Adjectives with -ing and -ed 1
- Adjectives with -ing and -ed 2
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Hello
Could you please explain this? I can understand explanation above and i've read a lot of sentence like 'Weighing too little can contribute to a weakened immune system.' or 'moisturizing cream'. Is 'weakened' the same grammar above? But i think this grammar is about emotion, and i can't find something to explain this. what is it called? How can i use this? thank you!
Hello there.
As the page says, the -ing form has a number of uses and you have two different uses of the -ing form in your examples:
1) Weighing too little can contribute...
> In this sentence, 'weighing' is the subject. This is the -ing form as a noun, sometimes termed the gerund.
2) moisturising cream
> Here, the -ing form used as an adjective. It tells us what kind of cream we are talking about.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello sir,
Can we say if we add ing to an adjective becomes more relative with things and if we add ed to an adjective becomes more relative with persons .
Hello again g-ssan,
It sounds to me like you've got the right general idea and it's a good rule to keep in mind when you don't have a dictionary.
But please note that this rule doesn't always work. Until you've learned what the meanings of each '-ed' and '-ing' adjectives, I'd encourage you to look them up to be sure you understand them.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team