Adjectives ending in '-ed' and '-ing'

Do you know the difference between bored and boring? Test what you know with interactive exercises and read the explanation to help you.

Look at these examples to see how adjectives ending in -ed and -ing are used.

I was really bored in that presentation.
That was a really boring presentation.

Try this exercise to test your grammar.

Grammar test 1: Grammar test 1: Adjectives ending in '-ed' and '-ing'

Read the explanation to learn more.

Grammar explanation

Adjectives that end in -ed (e.g. bored, interested) and adjectives that end in -ing (e.g. boring, interesting) are often confused.

-ed adjectives

Adjectives that end in -ed generally describe emotions – they tell us how people feel.

I was so bored in that lesson, I almost fell asleep.
He was surprised to see Helen after all those years.
She was really tired and went to bed early.

-ing adjectives

Adjectives that end in -ing generally describe the thing that causes the emotion – a boring lesson makes you feel bored.

Have you seen that film? It's really frightening.
I could listen to her for hours. She's so interesting.
I can't sleep! That noise is really annoying!

Here are some adjectives that can have both an -ed and an -ing form.

annoyed	annoying
bored	boring
confused	confusing
disappointed	disappointing
excited	exciting
frightened	frightening
interested	interesting
surprised	surprising
tired	tiring
worried	worrying

Do this exercise to test your grammar again.

Grammar test 2: Grammar test 2: Adjectives ending in '-ed' and '-ing'

Try another grammar lesson

Language level

A1 - Elementary

A2 - Pre-intermediate

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Hi Hussainpoor,

Yes, they're both correct!

If you want to make them similar to each other in meaning, since sentence 1 is in the past simple ("was"), you can say "I was interested ..." in sentence 2 as well.

Jonathan

LearnEnglish team

I was surprised about her new song, because her vocal is really good and her dancing skill is so amazing.

Great explanation!

very good lesson

This lesson is really difficult, I don't understand when to use "ed" and when to use "ing". I tried to practice with the examples but I still don't understand them well. I'm worried about it. Who can help me with this problem? Thank so lot.

Hello Nguyentiep,

Could you please ask us a more specific question? I think we will be able to help you better if we can see how you are thinking.

If you don't know what to ask, please explain to us what you think the difference is between a specific pair of adjectives, for example, 'tired' and 'tiring'. We can then respond to help you understand.

Does that sound OK?

All the best,
Kirk
LearnEnglish team

I made a lot of mistakes on this topic and this situation made me feel really foolish but today I have learned that if I'm in a confusing situation, I need to think twice.

I am confused about talking and writing and talking in English with others

Hi abdelrehim,

You might like to look at the articles in our "Improve your English level" section (linked). They give advice about speaking and other aspects of learning. I hope it helps.