Top Ten Mistakes: 1.Participial adjectives

Good morning! It's Friday and very early, but I'm sure it will be much later by the time I get around to posting this. Time to start the day with a grammar lesson! Today I'll be talking about a common mistake, participial adjectives. There are two similar grammar points that I'm combining here, stative passives and participial adjectives. What am I talking about?  How about an example?

I recently had a great trip to Hawaii. The volcano was very INTERESTING.  We spent a ton of time at the park, and I was an EXHAUSTED tourist by the end of the day.


1. -ing (present participle)
Participial adjectives that end in -ing are used when the subject of the sentence CAUSES the feeling. In the example above, the volcano CAUSES me to want to know more about it. INTERESTING describes the volcano. It has an active meaning.

2. -ed (or other past participle forms, if an irregular verb)
Participial adjectives that end in -ed or another past participle form are used when the subject of the sentence RECEIVED the action or was acted on by something. It has a passive meaning. Something made the subject feel that way. I was exhausted by the day's activities. So I am an exhausted tourist (not an exhausting tourist--that would mean I made my travel mates feel tired!).

When the adjective describes a state/situation, it is called a "stative passive." You can often see them followed by prepositions. Ex. I'm EXCITED ABOUT going to the movies this weekend. I'm ADDICTED TO animated movies.

Here are some common words that we often use as participial adjectives:
boring/bored, interesting/interested, exciting/excited, confusing/confused, frustrating/frustrated, amazed/amazing (For a complete list, I suggest checking out the book Understanding and Using English Grammar by Betty Schrampfer Azar , which is my favorite grammar book.)

I often hear my students say the following: I'm really confusing about that.
Unfortunately, this is incorrect. What would be the correct way to say it?
That's really confusing. / I'm really confused about that.
"That" causes the feeling, and "I" feel the feeling.

What do these sentences mean?: I'm boring. I'm bored.
"I'm boring" means that I make other people feel uninterested. People don't want to be around me because I'm not any fun. It's sad! "I'm bored" means that I am not having fun. There is nothing to do. Too bad!

Let's try some exercises. Choose the correct word to fill in the blank and think about your answer. The answers are below the exercises.

1) I don't like going to amusement parks. I think roller coasters are so (boring/bored). I'd rather go shopping or to the movies.
2) Kelly is (interesting/interested) in learning Korean, but she doesn't know how to start. Do you have any recommendations?
3) Scientists just discovered life on Mars. That's so (exciting/excited)!
4) Grammar is (confusing/confused) and I hate it! I wish we didn't have to study English.
5) The student felt (frustrating/frustrated) when he saw his score on the final exam. He thought he'd done a good job.
6) I saw on the news that a dog saved his owner from a fire. How (amazing/amazed)!

ANSWERS: 1-boring 2-interested 3-exciting 4-confusing 5-frustrated 6-amazing

Here's a website with a quiz for more practice: More Practice Here.

ASSIGNMENT: Post a comment to this message. Write one (or a few) sentences trying to use this grammar point. I'll check them for you :)