2. Paco was exhausted after the flight(Ed/ing adjectives)

Example activity

Do you remember what Paco did when he arrived in Johannesburg? Yes he went to the hotel and relaxed in the bar of the hotel before going to his room and sleep. He was exhausted after the flight. Paco thinks travelling is exhausting.

As you can see, there are two participial adjectives in the sentences above: exhausted and exhausting. They are called participial adjectives because the former is a past participle and the latter is a present participle. Let's see some other examples.

 

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Past Participial Adjective
 Present Participial Adjective
bored boring
surprised surprising
frightened frightening
excited exciting
shocked shocking

 

 

Find  five more participial adjectives in the story the man told about the thunderstorm when he was a child at the beginning of the topic and complete the chart.

 

Past Participial Adjective Present Participial Adjective
   
   
   
   
   

 

 

 

 

Sometimes we doubt which of the participial adjective we have to use, either the present participial or the past participial one.

* The past participial adjectives (bored, surprised, frightened, etc.) are used to express feelings, that is how people feel.

e. g. Paco was exhausted after the flight from the States.

* The present participial adjectives (boring, surprising, frightening, etc.) describe the people or things that cause those feelings.

e. g. The flight was exhausting, so Paco was exhausted after the flight from the States.

Click on the presentation below to see a summary and more examples of participial adjectives.

Presentation in slideshare


Further knowledge
Do you feel like watching another short presentation on the subject? Then, click here. If you want to do some exercises related to these adjectives, click here. More exercises on the subject can be done by clicking here.
If you click on the picture on the left, you will be able to download a file with a list of the most common participial adjectives in English. Remember that if you have any doubt in pronunciation, you should visit our friend, the robot, in the first section of the topic; and if you need to know the meaning of any of the verbs or adjectives included in the list, look them up in this online dictionary.

Pregunta de Elección Múltiple

Pregunta

Which is the correct adjective, the present or the past participial one?

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1. Paco was ________ (astonish) at the man's story.

Respuestas

a. astonishing

b. astonished

Retroalimentación

Pregunta

2. Is Anthropology ________ (interest) for Paco?

Respuestas

a. interested

b. interesting

Retroalimentación

Pregunta

3. If it is proved that global warming is responsible for most natural disasters, we should get ________ (worry).

Respuestas

a. worrying

b. worried

Retroalimentación

Rellenar huecos

Complete the sentences with the correct form of the adjective.

1. A marathon is very   .   (tire)

2. I'm going to bed. I'm feeling very . (tire)

3. Wow, that snowboarding race was really . (excite)

4. Last night I watched SAW 2. It was very . (frighten)

5. The most thing about Juan's grandfather is his age. (surprise)

6. I was when I heard the news about the king. (amaze)

7. I find maths classes at school really . I always fall asleep. (bore)

8. I was really when John knocked on the door. (surprise)

9. I felt really when the monster appeared in the film. (scare)

10. I'm really . Let's go and have some fun! (bore)

11. My English teacher's classes are very . (interest)

12. Why aren't you listening to this programme? Aren't you in sport? (interest)

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As you have seen, both -ed and -ing are suffixes that form not only present (-ing) and past (-ed) participles from verbs, but also adjectives. However there are more suffixes we may use to form adjectives in English. Go on to next section to study the most important ones. Come on! It will be very useful for you and your English!