Participial Adjectives

Participial Adjectives • Boring or Bored • Confusing or Confused • Exciting or Excited • Embarrassing or Embarrassed ING? or ED? What a confusing decision!

Be Careful!Participial adjectives look like verbs, but they’re not verbs! They’re ADJECTIVES! What do adjectives do? They DESCRIBE!

Here’s a question for you! • In English, where do you usually put an adjective in a sentence? In English there are two places they can go: Before a noun: This is confusing grammar. That was a boring movie. After the verb “be”:This grammar is confusing. That movie was boring.

There are 2 types of participial adjectives. Present Participial Adjectives end in “ING” For example: boring exhausting exciting surprising confusing embarrassing Past Participial Adjectives end in “ED” For example: bored exhausted excited surprised confused embarrassed

So here’s the big question! When do you use boring? When do you use bored? Exciting? Excited? Depressing? Depressed? Fascinating? Fascinated?

We can often view a situation in one of the following ways: Cause……….Result Cause……….Feeling Doer……….Receiver For example, if you are in an English class and the grammar really confuses you. You would say: This grammar is confusing. (It’s the causeof your confusion.) You are confused. (This is the resultof that grammar lesson. It’s how you feel.)

So… Present Participial Adjective Past Participial Adjective -ING-ED CauseResult The lesson was boring. The students were bored. Cause Feeling The book is interesting. The reader is interested. The doer The receiver The speaker was boring. The audience was bored.

Let’s PracticeTogether

If you read an article in the newspaper that really surprises you… How would you describe the article? It was a surprising article. How would you describe yourself? I was surprised by that article.

If you watch a movie that really fascinates you… How would you describe the movie? That was a fascinating movie I saw. How would you describe yourself? I was fascinated by that movie.

If you are in a situation that embarrasses you… How do you describe yourself in that situation? I am embarrassed. How would you describe the situation? What an embarrassing situation.

If a chemical irritates your skin… How do you describe the chemical?. That chemical is irritating. How do you describe your skin? My skin is irritated.

Any Questions? Are you sure? OK! Let’s Practice!

Participial Adjectives