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
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
I understood
thank you
thank you teaching me. i' m interested in your programm. and I'm learning ENGLISH Grammar
the lesson is very practice
It's really exciting lesson, I am very excited
Traveling abroad is thrilling to me and it makes me interesting.
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:
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello!
Can you help me about understandig excercise?
She's a big dog but you don't need to be ________
For me the answer is frightening because the big dog causes the emotion .
But the test say is frightened
I can understand.
Thank´s for help me.