Are you bored or boring?
Is the book interested or interesting?
Here's a grammar review taken from my General English lesson on Sports and Exercise:
Grammar: Participial Adjectives - present [-ing] & past [-ed]:
interested / interesting
bored / boring
excited / exciting
surprised / surprising
confused / confusing
annoyed / annoying
tired / tiring
· adjectives that come from verbs
· made from the verb participle
· past participle -ed
· present participle -ing
past participle -ed describe feelings that people have
past particle -ed – can only refer to how people (not things) feel.
A book cannot be “bored” or “interested”; only a person can be “bored” or “interested”.
However, a person can be “boring” or “interesting”. (It’s not polite to call someone “boring” though.)
Examples:
The students were interested in the lesson, because the lesson was interesting.
The professor was an interesting teacher, so I was interested in the course.
The Zumba class was not boring; I could never be bored in that class.
I’m very tired, because running on the treadmill is tiring.
He was annoyed, because there was an annoying woman who was talking loudly on her phone.
Oh dear; I’m confused; I don’t know which way I’m going; Zumba is confusing to me as I have two left feet!
Wow! that spin class was exciting. I am always excited to get to the home stretch at the end of the class.
Practice: choose the correct participial adjective (see the answers at the bottom)
1. Were you ___ surprised / surprising ___ to see a new instructor today?
2. That football match was so ___ excited / exciting ___; What a match!
3. I was ___ interested / interesting ___ to learn about the origins of the shot put.
4. My tennis coach is a very ___ interested / interesting ___ person. He has a lot of
good stories to tell.
5. Ugh! I have been doing the elliptical for 30 minutes; I’m so __ bored / boring ___.
Questions using participial adjectives
1. What sports are you interested in?
2. Which sports are boring to you?
3. Do you get bored when exercising?
4. What surprising facts do you know about exercise or sports?
5. Are you as confused as I am about American football? I have no idea what is going on.
Answers to Practice:
1. Were you ___ surprised / surprising ___ to see a new instructor today?
2. That football match was so ___ excited / exciting ___; What a match!
3. I was ___ interested / interesting ___ to learn about the origins of the shot put.
4. My tennis coach is a very ___ interested / interesting ___ person. He has a lot of
good stories to tell.
5. Ugh! I have been doing the elliptical for 30 minutes; I’m so __ bored / boring ___.
Comments