ING vs ED Adjectives Exercises

The basic rule

Many English adjectives are formed from verbs and end in -ed or -ing. They look similar but have different meanings.

• -ed adjectives describe how a person (or animal) feels: bored, interested, tired, excited.
• -ing adjectives describe the thing, person or situation that causes the feeling: boring, interesting, tiring, exciting.

Compare:

• I am bored. (I feel bored.)
• The lesson is boring. (The lesson causes the feeling.)

A quick test

Ask yourself: is this the feeling, or the cause of the feeling?

• If it is the feeling, use -ed.
• If it is the cause, use -ing.

You can also test with a sentence: The lesson bores me, so the lesson is boring and I am bored. The -ing adjective matches the thing that does the action of the verb (the lesson bores), and the -ed adjective matches the one who receives it (I am bored).

Common pairs

When a person is -ing

People can take the -ing form too, when you describe the effect they have on others.

• He is bored. (He feels bored.)
• He is boring. (He makes other people feel bored.)

So I am boring does not mean “I feel bored.” It means “I am a dull person.” This is the most common source of misunderstandings, so check what you want to say.

Also note that not every -ed or -ing word is an emotion adjective. Words such as a closed door, a broken window and running water are participle adjectives with ordinary meanings.

Exercise 1: Choose the correct adjective

1. I was (bored / boring) during the lecture.
2. The lecture was (bored / boring).
3. Her story was (shocked / shocking).
4. We were (amazed / amazing) by the view.
5. It’s a very (relaxed / relaxing) song.
6. He felt (embarrassed / embarrassing) when he forgot her name.
7. The instructions are (confused / confusing).
8. I’m (interested / interesting) in history.
9. The (exhausted / exhausting) hike took five hours.
10. The (excited / exciting) children ran to the gate.
11. What (disappointed / disappointing) news!
12. My mother was (worried / worrying) about the storm.

Exercise 2: Correct the mistake

Each sentence has one wrong adjective form. Assume you want to describe the feeling or cause normally.

1. The movie was terrified.
2. She was surprising by the gift.
3. It was a tired journey.
4. The students were exciting about the trip.
5. I was very annoying by the noise.

Exercise 3: Explain the difference

Write one sentence for each pair showing the difference in meaning.

1. She is annoyed. / She is annoying.
2. He is worried. / The news is worrying.

Answers

Exercise 1

1. bored (my feeling)
2. boring (the cause)
3. shocking (the story causes the shock)
4. amazed (our feeling)
5. relaxing (the song causes relaxation)
6. embarrassed (his feeling)
7. confusing (the instructions cause confusion)
8. interested (my feeling)
9. exhausting (the hike causes exhaustion)
10. excited (the children’s feeling)
11. disappointing (the news causes disappointment)
12. worried (her feeling)

Exercise 2

1. The movie was terrifying.
2. She was surprised by the gift.
3. It was a tiring journey.
4. The students were excited about the trip.
5. I was very annoyed by the noise.

Exercise 3 (sample answers)

1. She is annoyed means she feels irritated, for example “She is annoyed because her flight was delayed.” She is annoying means she irritates other people, for example “She is annoying because she keeps interrupting.”
2. He is worried means he feels anxious. The news is worrying means it causes anxiety in people.

If you want more mixed grammar practice after this, try the sentence correction exercises, or compare how adverbs of manner work with a different pair of word forms. The page on identifying sentence errors includes similar word-form questions.