[Mastering English Grammar: The Distinction Between -ING and -ED Adjectives]-[-ing and -ed adjectives]
📋 Summary
Understanding the Nuances of -ING and -ED Adjectives
In this episode of Six Minute Vocabulary from BBC Learning English, hosts Finn and Catherine provide a comprehensive guide to navigating a common source of confusion for English learners: adjectives ending in "-ing" versus those ending in "-ed." By breaking down their usage through real-life scenarios, they offer clear rules for correctly describing things versus personal feelings.
The Role of -ING Adjectives: Describing External Stimuli
The hosts explain that adjectives ending in "-ing," such as boring, confusing, surprising, or exciting, are primarily used to describe things, events, or situations that provoke a specific reaction.
For instance, when referencing a difficult travel experience, the woman in the example describes her 10-hour wait as "10 long boring hours." Here, the "-ing" suffix characterizes the situation itself. Finn further illustrates this by describing the film Gravity as a very "exciting film," noting that the action within the movie is what earns the adjective. Essentially, if an event or object is the source of an emotion, the "-ing" form is the correct choice.
The Role of -ED Adjectives: Describing Internal Feelings
Conversely, adjectives ending in "-ed" are used to describe the feelings or states of a person. The hosts highlight the difference by citing the woman’s reaction to the price of her holiday: "I was surprised at how cheap it was." In this context, "surprised" captures her internal state of mind because the situation did not match her expectations.
This distinction is crucial for clarity. Finn notes that if he feels irritated by loud music, the music is "annoying," but he feels "annoyed." Similarly, while a long commute might be "boring," it makes the commuter feel "bored."
Avoiding Common Pitfalls
One of the most important takeaways from the discussion is the risk of miscommunication. The hosts issue a stern "word of warning": confusing these two can lead to embarrassing results. For example, if you say "I am very boring," you are not saying you feel bored; rather, you are claiming that you are the type of person who makes other people feel bored.
Summary and Practical Application
The episode concludes with a quiz to solidify these concepts:
- Feeling vs. Thing: When describing a bath that makes you feel a certain way, you are "relaxed" (using "-ed" to describe a feeling).
- Describing a Phenomenon: The "surprising" discovery of life on Mars uses "-ing" because it describes the discovery itself as the cause of wonder.
- Contextual Flexibility: Some words can be either, depending on the subject. "Those students are very annoying" describes the behavior of the students, whereas "those students are very annoyed" describes their current emotional state.
To master these, the hosts offer a final "top tip": learners should maintain a notebook where they write down pairs of example sentences. This practice helps internalize the subtle differences between the source of an emotion ("-ing") and the experience of the emotion itself ("-ed").
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