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'

Try another grammar lesson

Language level

A1 Elementary

A2 Pre-intermediate

This lesson was really exciting to me 💕

the best lesson i ever learn

please , check my answer correct or not correct.

1. The movie is a really boring for me.
2. She's is disappointed for her job.
3. I'm very tried .so I want to bed early.
4. Physic major is a really interesting subject.so I am not boring .

Hello wai phyo hlaing,

There are a few mistakes in some of your sentences, but I can confirm that you've used the adjectives in sentences 1-3 correctly.

In sentence 4, 'interesting' is correct, but you should say 'I'm not bored' (instead of 'boring') since it is a feeling you have.

Does that make sense?

Best wishes,
Kirk
LearnEnglish team

Fantastic pro 👏🏻

1.The movie is really boring for me. (The word "a" should be removed.)

2. She's disappointed with her job. ("Is" is unnecessary, and "for" should be changed to "with.")

3. I'm very tired, so I want to go to bed early. ("Tried" should be "tired," and "to bed" is needed after "go.")

4. Physics major is a really interesting subject, so I am not bored. ("Physic" should be "Physics," and "boring" should be "bored" when referring to yourself.)

IM REALY ENJOIED TO DAY BECAUSE THIS LESSO WAS VERY ENJOYING

Hello, I have a question regarding this topic. We learned that we use the adjectives that end with ing to describe things or people, but we use the adjectives that end with ed to describe what we feel or what someone feels. on the website of Oxford dictionary I found these sentences, could a teacher please explain to me how I can use " confused" in this way and what would these sentences mean if I used " confusing" ? because I am now confused.

The children gave a confused account of what had happened.
His mind was crowded with confused thoughts.
A confused situation followed the military coup.

Hello ah2500,

The explanation is correct but 'confused' can also mean 'unclear' or 'badly organised', and this is the meaning in these sentences. Accounts, thoughts and situations can be confused, and so can explanations, answers and reasoning, for example.

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team