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
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
Hello masri.ahm04,
The correct answer is 'accused' here, not 'accusing', and your reasoning is correct.
I can't say why your book has the wrong answer in its key. Perhaps it is a misprint or perhaps the question was changed during editing and the key was not, but I can confirm your answer and analysis.
As far as the more general topic goes, I think your analysis of this sentence shows you have a good understanding of the area. Here are some links which might help you:
defining relative clauses
participle clauses
reducing relative clauses (from the BBC)
reducing non-identifying relative clauses (from Cambridge)
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
You are correct it should have another word in the sentence such as 'who was' or 'being' or 'that was' and it then should be accused
Hello teacher
I want to ask why using "confused" in the sentence The instructions for my new coffee machine are really confused." is wrong
Hello Agness,
We could say that instructions which are not clear are confusing and that those instructions make us confused. 'confusing' describes what is not clear and 'confused' describes how we feel.
Does that make sense?
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
thank you, the lesson is very helpfull for me, i understand now a difference between these adjectives.
Thanks LearnEnglish team
This lesson is very clear, but I am still struggling on these two adjectives : matched and matching that are not in the list. I don't know how to use them.
Thank you in advance for your help.
Hi dugny36,
'Matching' means having the same characteristic or a complementary characteristic as something else, especially something visual such as a colour or a design. Here are some examples:
See the Cambridge Dictionary page on 'matching' here for more explanation and examples: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/matching
'Matched' is similar in meaning, but is mainly used for non-visual similarities. It emphasises the idea that the two items have already been put together. Some examples:
I hope that helps.
Jonathan
The LearnEnglish Team
Somtimes I feel confused about this rulers, but I'm learning...
a tiring activity makes you feel tired
I am excited about this lesson
It was a exciting lessons