FluencyLab
GrammarHub
Use -ed adjectives for how someone feels and -ing adjectives for the person, thing or situation that causes the feeling.
Overview
Use -ed adjectives for how someone feels and -ing adjectives for the person, thing or situation that causes the feeling.
Form and rules
-ed adjectives commonly describe a person's or animal's feeling: bored, interested, worried.
-ing adjectives describe the cause or quality: boring, interesting, worrying.
A person can also be -ing if they cause the effect: He's boring means he makes people bored.
Common pairs include excited/exciting, tired/tiring, confused/confusing and surprised/surprising.
Choose the adjective by asking whether the noun experiences the feeling or creates it.
A closer look
Common pairs include excited/exciting, tired/tiring, confused/confusing and surprised/surprising.
Choose the adjective by asking whether the noun experiences the feeling or creates it.
Examples
I'm interested in history.
The lecture was interesting.
They were exhausted after the exhausting trip.
The instructions are confusing.
I was surprised by the surprising result.
Common mistakes
The film causes the feeling, so use -ing.
The person experiences the feeling, so use -ed.
Ready to practise?
The test combines multiple choice, gap completion, error correction, and sentence building so students have to recognise and produce the grammar, not simply reread the rule.