Ending in –ing and -ed

Boring and Bored

 Jane has been doing the same job for a very long time.
Everyday she does exactly the same thing again and
again. She doesn’t enjoy it anymore and would like to
do something different.
 Jane’s job is boring.
 Jane is bored (with her job)
Someone is –ed/ Something (or
someone) is -ing
 Jane is bored because her job is boring.

 Jane’s job is boring, so Jane is bored (not ‘Jane is

boring’)
Someone is interested because
something (or someone) is
interesting:
 Tom is interested in politics (not ‘interesting in
politics’).
 Tom finds politics interesting.
 Are you interested in buying a car?
 Did you meet anyone interesting at the party?
Someone is surprised because
something is surprising:
 Everyone was surprised that he passed the
examination.

 It was quite surprising that he passed the examination.

Someone is disappointed because
something is disappointing:
 I was disappointed with the film. I expected it to be
much better.

 The film was disappointing. I expected it much to be

much better.
Someone is tired because
something is tiring:
 He is always very tired when he gets home from work.

 He has a very tiring job.

Other pairs of adjectives ending in
–ing and –ed are:
 Excite  Fascinate
 Amuse  Amaze
 Annoy  Frighten
 Satisfy  Shock
 Horrify  exhaust
 Terrify  Disgust
 Embarrass  Worry
 Confused
 Depress
 Astonish
Adjectives: word order
 Sometimes we use two or more adjectives together:
1. Tom lives in a nice new house.
2. In the kitchen there was a beautiful large round
wooden table.

 New/ large/ round/ wooden are fact adjectives.

They give us objective information about something
(age, size, colour, etc.).
 Nice/ beautiful are opinion adjectives. They tell us
what someone thinks of something. Opinion
adjectives usually go before fact adjectives.

 Other examples:
- An intelligent young girl.
- A delicious hot soup.
- A nice sunny day.
 Adjectives of size and length (big/small/tall/
short/long etc.) usually go before adjectives of shape
and width (round/fat/thin/slim/wide etc.)
 A large round table.
 A tall thin girl.
 A long narrow street.
Adjectives after some verbs
 Especially get/ be/ become
Are you tired? Be careful! I’m getting hungry

 We also use adjective after feel/ smell/ taste/ sound/

seem/ look.
Do you feel tired?
The dinner smells good.
Tom sounded angry when i spoke to him on the phone.
 But after other verbs you must use an adverb
- Drive carefully! (not ‘drive careful’)
- Susan plays the piano very well. (not ‘plays ... very good’)
- Tom shouted at me angrily (not ‘shouted ... angry’)

We use an adjective after look: Tom looked sad when I saw

him.

We use an adverb after look at: Tom looked at me sadly.

ADJECTIVE and ADVERB
 An adjective tells us more about a noun. We use
adjectives before nouns and after a few verbs
(especially be)
- Tom is a careful driver.
- Be quiet, please!
- We didn’t go out because of the heavy rain.
- I was disappointed that my exam results were so bad.
 An adverb tells us more about a verb. An adverb tell us in what
way someone does something or in what way something
happens.
- Tom drove carefully along the narrow road (not ‘drove careful’)
- Speak quietly, please! (not ‘speak quiet’)
- We didn’t go out because it was raining heavily (not ‘raining
heavy’)
- I was disappointed that I did so badly in the exam (not ‘did so
bad’)

Compare: she speaks perfect english (adj + noun)

She speaks English perfectly (verb + object + adv)
Exercises
1. Do you easily get embarrassing/ embarrased?
2. The kitchen hadn’t been cleaned for ages. It was
really disgusting/ disgusted.
3. An – ring – unusual – gold
4. French – interesting – old – an – painting
5. A – nose – large – red
6. This soup tastes nice/ nicely.
7. Please shut the door quiet/ quietly.
Exercises
1. I waited nervous in the waiting-room before the
interview.
2. Why were you so unfriendly when I saw you
yesterday?
3. It rained continuously for three days.
4. Sue is terrible upset about loosing her job.
5. I had little difficulty finding a flat. I found one quite
easy.