Participles as adjectives (-ed/-ing adjectives)

Exercises: 1 2 3

Exercise 2

Choose the correct options to complete the text.

It was Christmas day again and my two sons were 1 at the prospect of unwrapping all the 2 boxes that lay around the Christmas tree. I was 3 about giving them their presents, but also a bit 4 because I didn’t want to 5 them again. There’s nothing more 6 than a child with a 7 present in their hands.

That’s what had happened the year before. When my elder son opened his present I was 8 to see how 9 he was with his new toy. It was 10 . But now it would be different, because I knew exactly what they really wanted. I had swallowed my pride and called my ex-wife to ask about what our children really wanted.

When they were unwrapping the presents, I was concentrating on their expressions, and it was so 11 to see the joy in their eyes! They were totally 12 to see they were the new owners of an X-box with countless games. It was a 13 scene. And I was so 14 to see that this year I hadn’t failed them that I forgot about how much the idea of video games 15 me.

Exercises: 1 2 3

-ed/-ing adjectives

Participial adjectives can be distinguished by their endings, either -ed or -ing. They come from verbs, and they are called participial adjectives because they have the same endings as verb participles.

Original verbs

Many verbs that we can use to express feelings or emotions can be turned into adjectives.

Walking up the stairs tires me too much. I’ll take the elevator. (from tire ⇒ tired/tiring)
You are boring me. Please stop talking. (from bore ⇒ bored/boring)
The announcement surprised everyone. (from surprise ⇒ surprised/surprising)

-ed adjectives

-ed adjectives are used to describe how people feel. They cannot be used with things because things have no emotions.

We’re tired. Can we stop running?
I’m bored. Let’s play cards.
I was surprised to see her.

-ing adjectives

-ing adjectives are used to talk about the things or people that produce those feelings in people.

Running is very tiring. We don’t want to run.
This film is very boring. Let’s play cards.
Her visit was very surprising. We weren’t expecting her.

Note that a few of these adjectives don’t have an -ing ending; they have an irregular form:

offended ⇒ offensive (NOT offending )
stressed ⇒ stressful (NOT stressing )
delighted ⇒ delightful
impressed ⇒ impressive
scared ⇒ scary

The following are some of the most common verbs expressing feelings and emotions and their present and past participial forms.

We are working on this!

We're developing a NEW LEARNING PLATFORM with a subscription plan that includes additional features at an affordable price. One of those features will be PDF downloads.

Learn more!