Friday, June 24, 2011

Common Error: "-ed" vs. "-ing" Endings

 Hello, and happy Friday! I'm still planning on talking more about other languages' influence on English, but it's been a while since we've had a common error, so I wanted to share this one. I've heard my students make mistakes with words like bored/boring, excited/exciting, amazed/amazing, and other similar word combinations.  Fortunately, this is an easy error to correct. Let's look:

Common Error: Bored vs. Boring, etc. (-ed vs. -ing)
DON’T say this:I have been doing grammar exercises for an hour, so I'm very boring.
The movie last night was very amazed.
This Common Error is not very confused.
Can you please play some relaxed music?
WHY?For word pairs like these, just remember how to use the two endings:

-Use -ing at the end of the word if the subject causes the emotion.
For example, a movie can cause an emotion, but it can't experience an emotion (because it's not alive). So, we'd have to say:
"The movie was boring/exciting/interesting/etc."

-Use -ed at the end of the word if the subject experiences or feels the emotion.
For example, a person can experience an emotion, so you could say:
"John is bored/excited/confused/etc."

-BUT, a person can also cause an emotion (if he or she makes someone else experience that emotion). So, you could also possibly say:
"John is boring/exciting/confusing/etc."
...depending on what you want to express in your sentence.

Other similar word pairs include:
-annoyed/annoying
-depressed/depressing
-disappointed/disappointing
-embarrassed/embarrassing
-enchanted/enchanting
-fascinated/fascinating
-frightened/frightening
-frustrated/frustrating
-interested/interesting
-pleased/pleasing
-relaxed/relaxing
-shocked/shocking
-surprised/surprising
-tired/tiring
-worried/worrying

Can you think of any others?
INSTEAD, SAY THIS:-"I have been doing grammar exercises for an hour, so I am very bored."
-"The movie last night was very amazing."
-"This Common Error is not very confusing."
-"Can you please play some relaxing music?"

I hope that this Common Error isn't too confusing... and I also hope that you're not confused! If you have any comments or questions, please feel free to leave a comment or contact us. Thanks for reading, and have a great day!

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-Ryan

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