-ED and –ING adjectives

Let’s understand the difference between -ing adjectives and -ed adjectives.

 Adjectives ending in –ing such as tiring, amazing, and shocking, are used to

talk about the characteristic or quality of a thing, situation or even a person. So
if you say “I’m boring” then you are describing yourself as a boring person.

 On the other hand, adjectives ending in –ed such as tired, amazed, and

shocked, are used to describe our feelings and emotions, meaning we use –ed
adjectives to describe how we feel about a situation, event, person, or thing. So if
you say “I’m bored,” for example, with a longer sentence, “I’m bored with this
book,” then you mean that you think the book is not interesting to read.

Let’s compare these two side by side before we have more examples:

Let’s have more examples for –ing adjectives:

1. The five-hour hike was really tiring. In this sentence, we are describing the
characteristic of an activity, which is hiking, so we will use an –ing adjective.
2. The baby foxes at the animal reservation were cute and amazing. 
Here, amazing describes the characteristics of the baby foxes.

Now, below there are a couple of examples for adjectives ending in –ed. 

1. The fast pace of the hike made most of the participants really tired. The
adjective tired is describing how the participants feel.
2. The children were amazed with the cute baby foxes.  The adjective amazed is
describing how the children felt when they saw the baby foxes.

 
Examples and Exercises

1. The professor was [ annoyed/annoying ] with the students who did not follow her
safety instructions.

 What is the adjective describing? Is it the characteristic of the professor, or is it

about how the professor felt? It is about how the professor felt about the students
who did not follow safety instructions, so the correct answer is [annoyed]: The
professor was annoyed with the students who did not follow her safety
instructions.

2. My grades were really [ disappointed/disappointing ] last semester so I promised to

work harder this term.

 What is the adjective describing? It’s describing [my grades], not my feelings, so
the correct answer is [disappointing]. My grades were really disappointing last
semester. 

3. The sudden increase in the number of infections is [ worried/worrying ].

4. She got [ worried/worrying ] when the team didn’t call her for a few days.
5. Jessie is just not [ interested/interesting] in sci-fi movies. She prefers romantic
comedies.
6. It was my first time to experience such a strong earthquake. It was [terrified/terrifying].
7. We were all [ surprised/surprising ] when she said she was quitting her job.
8. I had high expectations for this movie and I was not [disappointed/disappointing ].
9. The test was quite difficult. It’s [ amazed/amazing ] that I passed it.
10. The plot twists in the story are quite [ confused/confusing ].
11. That horror movie shows a lot of [ frightened/ frightening ] scenes.
12. After checking the quality of the products, I was quite [ satisfied/ satisfying ] with
them.
13. It’s my first time to travel abroad so I’m really [ excited/exciting ].
14. My friend likes to try exotic and [ disgusted/disgusting ] foods.
15. On my second week just staying at home, I started to get [bored/boring].
16. I liked the video but the soundtrack was a bit [ irritated/irritating ].
17. His habit of being late to meetings is really [ annoyed/annoying ].
18. I just had a very [ satisfied/satisfying ] meal at the restaurant you recommended.
19. I think this color combination is very [ pleased/pleasing ] to the eye.
20. She gave incomplete instructions so now I’m a little [ confused/confusing ].