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: | ||
| 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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