Nezahualcoyotl Technological University

ADJECTIVES

Adjectives ending in- ing and –ed (boring/bored etc.)

a) There are many pairs of adjectives ending in ING and –ED. For example: boring
and bored.
Study this example situation.

Jane has been doing the same job for a very long time.

Every day 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 if something (or someone) is boring. Or if something is –ING, it makes

you ed.
-Jane is bored because her job is boring.
-Jane’s job is boring, so Jane is bored (not ‘Jane is boring’)

Now study these examples:

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.

M. en D. O. Eva Benítez Medina Página 1

 Nezahualcoyotl Technological University

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 to be much better.

Someone is tired because something is tiring:

-He is always very tired when he gets home from work.

-He was a very tiring job.

b) Other pairs of adjectives ending in ing and ed are:

Fascinating fascinated
Exciting excited Horrifying horrified
Amusing amused Terrifying terrified
Amazing amazed Frightening frightened
Astonishing astonished Depressing depressed
Shocking shocked Worrying worried
Disgusting disgusted Annoying annoyed
Embarrassing embarrassed Exhausting exhausted
Confusing confused Satisfying satisfied

Exercises

1 in this exercise you have to complete two sentences for each situation. Use an adjective
ending in –ING or –ED to complete each sentence.
Example: The film wasn´t as good as we had expected (disappoint-)
a) The film was disappointing.
b) We were disappointed with the film.

1 It´s been raining al day. I hate this weather. (depress-)

a) This weather is depressing b) This weather makes me depressed

2 Astronomy is one of Tom´s main interests. (interest-)

a) Tom is interested in astronomy.
b) He finds astronomy very interesting.

3 I turned off the television in the middle of programme. (bor-)

a) The programme was boring. b) I was bored.

M. en D. O. Eva Benítez Medina Página 2

 Nezahualcoyotl Technological University

4 Ann is going to American ex month. She has never been there before, (excit-)
a) She is really excited about going.
b) It will be an exciting experience for her.

5 Diana teaches young children. It´s a hard job. (exhaust-)

a) She often finds her job exhausting
b) At the end of the day´s work she is often exhausted

2 Choose the right adjective.

Example: I was disappointing/disappointed with the film. I had expected in to be better.

1 We were all horrifying/horrified when we heard about the disaster.

2 It´s sometimes embarrassing/embarrassed when you have to ask people for money.
3 Are you interesting/interested in football?
4 I enjoyed the football match. It was quite exciting/excited.
5 It was really terrifying/terrified experience. Afterwards everybody was very
shocking/shocked.
6 I had never to be offered the job. I was really amazing/amazed when I was offered it.
7 The kitchen hadn´t been cleaned for ages. It was really disgusting/disgusted.
8 Do you easily get embarrassing/embarrassed?

3 Complete these sentences with an adjective ending in –ING or –ED. The first letter(s) of
the adjective are given each time.
Example: Jane finds her job boring. She wants to do something different.

1 I seldom visit art galleries. I’m not very interested in art.

2 We went for a very long walk. It was very tiring
3 Why do you always look so bored? Is your life really so boring?
4 He’s one of the most boring people I’ve ever met. He never stops talking and never says
anything interesting.
5 I was as astonished when I heard they were getting divorced. They had always seemed so
happy together.
6 I’m starting a new job next week. I’m quite excited about it.

ADJECTIVES: WORD ORDER ('A NICE NEW HOUSE')

Adjectives after verbs (‘do you feel tired?')
a) Sometimes we use two or more adjectives together:
- Tom lives in a nice new house.
- In the kitchen there was a beautiful large round wooden table.

M. en D. O. Eva Benítez Medina Página 3

 Nezahualcoyotl Technological University

Adjectives like new/large/round/wooden are fact adjectives. They give us objective

information about something (age, size, color etc.). Adjectives like nice/beautiful are
opinion adjectives. They tell us what someone thinks of something.
Opinion adjectives usually go before fact adjectives:

opinion fact
a nice sunny day

delicious hot soup

an intelligent young man

a beautiful large round wooden table

b) Sometimes there are two or more fact adjectives. Very often (but not always) we put fact
adjectives in this order:

1 2 3 4 5
NOUN
how how What where what is it
big? made of?
old? color? from?

a tall young man (1-2) a large wooden table (1-5)

big blue eyes (1-3) an old Russian song (2 - 4)

a small black plastic bag(1-3-5) a bid white cotton shirt (2 -3 -5)

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

c) We also use adjectives after some verbs, especially be/get/become:

M. en D. O. Eva Benítez Medina Página 4

 Nezahualcoyotl Technological University

Are you tired? Be careful! I'm getting hungry.

We also use adjectives after: feel smell taste sound seem look:
- Do you feel tired?
- The dinner smells good.
- Tom sounded angry when 1 spoke to him on the phone. - This tea tastes a bit strange.
- Your friend seems very nice.

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')

Look we use an adjective after look when it means seem:

- Tom looked sad when 1 saw him.
But after look at we use an adverb:
- Tom looked at me sadly. (Not 'looked at me sad')

EXERCISES
.1 Put the adjectives in brackets in the correct position. Write the number in brackets)
Example: a beautiful table (wooden round) a beautiful round wooden table.
(opinion / 1 / 5 / Noun)
1 an unusual ring (gold) an unusual gold ring
2 an old lady (nice) an old nice lady
3 a good-looking man (young) a good looking young man
4 a modern house (attractive) an attractive modern house
5 black gloves (leather) black leather gloves
6 an American film (old) an old American film
7 a large nose (red) a large red nose
8 a sunny day (lovely) a lovely sunny day
9 a hot bath (nice) a nice hot bath

M. en D. O. Eva Benítez Medina Página 5

 Nezahualcoyotl Technological University

10 an ugly dress (orange) an ugly orange dress

11 a red car (old / little) a little old red car
12 a metal box (black / small) a small black metal box
13 a long face (thin) a long thin face
14 a wide avenue (long) a long wide a avenue
15 a big cat (fat / black) a big fat black car
16 a little Village (old / lovely) a lovely little old village
17 long hair (fair / beautiful) beautiful long fair hair
18 an old painting (interesting / French) an interesting old French painting

2 Complete each sentence with a verb and an adjective from the box.

feel look seemed awful Fine interesting

smell sounded tastes nice Upset wet

1 Ann seemed upset this morning. Do you know what was wrong?
2 I can't eat this. I've just tried it and it tastes awful
3 Jim told me about his new job last night. It sounded quite interesting, much better than
his old job.
4 1 wasn't very well yesterday but I feel fine today.
5 What beautiful flowers! They smell nice too.
6 You look wet Have you been out in the ram?

3 Choose the right word, adjective or adverb.

Examples: The dinner smells good/well. Drive careful/carefu1ly!

1 Please shut the door quiet/quietly.

2 Can you be quiet/quietly please?
3 This soup tastes nice/ nice1y.
4 Tom cooks very good/well
5 Don't go up that ladder. It doesn't 1ook safe/safely.

M. en D. O. Eva Benítez Medina Página 6

 Nezahualcoyotl Technological University

6 We were relieved that he arrived safe/safely his long journey.

7 Do you feel nervous/nervously before examinations?
8 Hurry up! You're always so slow/slowly.
9 He looked at me angry/angrily when 1 interrupted him.

M. en D. O. Eva Benítez Medina Página 7