Our goal today is to understand the difference between adjectives ending in -ed and -ing, like bored and boring. When to use which?
Adjectives, as you might remember, can tell us how we feel about something, like happy, sad, angry, etc. Sometimes, an adjective can have two different endings, -ed or -ing. Here is where things get a little complicated. Let's choose an adjective: bored. Read the following sentence and complete it,
I'm bored because...
Most probably, you wrote the reason why you are feeling bored; maybe because it's raining or there's no one to talk to. I completed the sentence as,
I'm bored because the movie is boring.
If you look carefully, you'll notice there are two adjectives, bored and boring. Crazy, right? Yes because both seem the same adjective just with different endings. Why do you think this is?
Adjectives ending in -ed tell you about a feeling. In this case, the feeling is that you are feeling bored. On the other hand, adjectives ending in -ing tell you a reason. In "I'm bored because the movie is boring", you are feeling bored and the reason is that the movie is boring.
Another way of explaining it is by setting a difference between the cause and the result. The adjective ending in -ing is the cause while the adjective ending in -ed is the result. To illustrate this concept, I'll use exhausted as a result and exhausting as a cause.
I'm exhausted because the workout was exhausting.
I know it may sound a little confusing, but as you've noticed, it applies to many other adjectives. Therefore, if you get the hang of it, it'll be easier to apply the same reasoning to many more. For example, excited-exciting, annoyed-annoying, confused-confusing.
I'm excited because parties are exciting.
She was annoyed because the meeting was confusing.
Good news? Here are more adjectives for you to learn and use!
interested interesting
tired tiring
relaxed relaxing
surprised surprising
excited exciting
frightened frightening
satisfied satisfying
amused amusing
confused confusing
annoyed annoying
exhausted exhausting
Hopefully, by now you have a better idea of how to use them. For further understanding, I've collected some online sites where you can practice and find out how well you're doing.
If you have one more moment to spare, could you be so kind as to like this post and write a sentence in the comment section below to share what you have learned? I'll love to see how this helped you improve your English.