Bored or Boring? Learn about -ED and -ING adjectives in English

Does grammar make you feel "bored" or "boring"? In this video we'll study the difference between "-ed" and "-ing" adjectives and how to use them correctly. I hope I can get you excited about grammar, because it can be interesting when you understand it! This is a great lesson for beginners to learn. But advanced English learners should also make sure they don't make this common mistake!

TRANSCRIPT

Hi. Welcome to engVid. I'm Adam. In today's video I want to talk to you about a particular type of adjective that many people often confuse, especially beginners, but this is also good for intermediate, even advanced students. We're talking about the "ed" and the "ing" adjectives. Okay? So, for example: "bored" and "boring", "interested" and "interesting". Now, the reason it's important to know the difference between these is because what you say about yourself sometimes, how you describe things can be very confusing to a native speaker especially, but to other people as well if you mix these two up.

Now, what does it mean to be bored and what does it mean to be boring? When we talk about "bored", we're describing a feeling. Okay? When we talk about "interested", we're describing a feeling. So all of the "ed" adjectives are actually feelings, and you can only use them to talk about people and sometimes animals. Why? Because things, like chairs, or tables, or whatever, they don't have feelings. A movie, a book doesn't have feelings. TV shows, for example, movies, books, whatever, they cause a feeling in a person. So the "ing" adjectives cause the feeling. The "ed" adjectives are the feeling. Okay? So very important. Only people and animals for the "ed", and for the "ing" you can use people, animals, things, situations, places, ideas, basically any noun because you're describing them. You're describing how they make people feel.

So now you're wondering: "Well, I have people here and I have people here, so how can I use 'boring' for people and for... And 'bored' for people?" Sorry. So what we have here, again, feeling and cause of feeling. So if you say: "I'm bored" means that I'm not having fun, I want to go do something else. If I say: "I am boring" means you're not having fun and want to go do something else. So if I am boring means that you are bored. If the movie is boring, then I am bored. Okay? So one thing-the "ing"-causes the feeling-"ed"-in the person. Very important to understand that. So: "I am bored by the movie which is boring. I am interested in this lesson because this lesson is very interesting." Right? "I'm excited, something is exciting." So, for example, I'm excited to go see the concert because this artist is very exciting, this singer or whatever.

"I am worried", now people don't realize that "worried" can have "worrying" as another adjective. "The situation is worrying" means the situation is making me feel worried. Okay? Maybe the whole global political situation, whatever. Now, hopefully none of you are confused by this lesson because I'm trying to make it not confusing. Okay? Everybody okay with that? So very important to understand all these nouns can use "ing" because they're creating the feeling, all these adjectives can only be used for people, again, sometimes animals. A dog sees... Sees you coming home after a long day, gets very excited. Its, you know, tail wagging in the back. Dogs don't usually get bored, they just go to sleep. So, animals sometimes.

Now, I just want to point out one other thing: Don't confuse feeling adjectives with "ed" with actual feelings. Okay? If somebody is loved, does he feel loved? Maybe yes, maybe no. We're not talking about that person's feelings. "Hated", "envied", these are all feeling words, but these are all verbs. Okay? "He is loved" means somebody loves him or her. "She is loved.", "This person is hated." But we can also use these about things. Okay? "The company is hated." So some companies they do not such nice things or maybe they go to a poor country and use very cheap labour, so this company is hated. So people hate this company. So keep in mind that these are feeling words, but used as verbs; whereas these are other verbs used as adjectives. Okay? Very important to distinguish between these words.

[surumico]

I'm an english tutor. Before teaching, I always watch your video because you have great explanations!

[saragath]

Even though English is not my first language, I started to learn it 6 months ago. Since I watched your videos, I feel comfortable to talk with everybody. Thanks you for these classes.💖💖

[mateus]

Thank you for the class! It was a interesting class that makes me interested in watch all others videos!

[Julio]

I love the way Adam explains every single subject. His classes are really interesting, I'm so excited to learn something new with every one of them.
Nobody can say they feel bored because Adam's classes aren't boring.
Thanks for everything Adam.

[friendarthur]

It’s unbelievable. I got 10 correct in the test. Before I read it, I believed -ed was used for Person & -ing was for thing. A very great lesson

[javiblan]

Your explanations are far from being boring. And your accent is clearest I ever heard.
Thanks for all from Spain.

[mt_]

This was a really interesting lesson, I was trying to learn when to use bored/boring but I ended up getting knowledge more than I expected. Thank you, Adam.

[inesescalante]

Adam. I am an English teacher too and I love the way you explain things. I like to use your videos in my class

[abhishekgsharma]

You are supereb.. I have over 10 years, working in English environment, but never have confidence about my English.. after watching your videos I thought to give IELTS soon.. Keep us up as you are doing ... Thanks for your support so far.. Appreciated..

[loigiap]

eveytime I watch your videos, I'm blown away!! THANK YOU FOR YOUR LESSON.

[ulissesoliveira]

AWESOME EXPLANATION...THIS PROFESSOR IS THE BESTEST I'VE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE

[tsddnpw]

Hello, Adam. Thank you very much for your great lessons. And especially the sense of humour, it helps me to learn English easily. Please, if you have a time, could you to explain about "used to" and "use" It was difficult to me to understand this grammar. Thank you!

[A-R]

I am really interested to learn more English by the help of your interesting lessons. Thanks Adam.

[MohammedMohammed-ffog]

I think that there are some cases where the subject is affected and affected, so we take (ed) and if it is influential in the sentence, we take (ing) Thanks for the useful explanation

[Carzz]

Your lessons aren't boring....love from Bangladesh

[durgaprasad-bkdj]

Fantastic way of teaching these adjectives . Indeed this small difference makes a big difference. Love you Adam sir.

[kabkab]

Your ratings speak of your videos 2000/14. Your explanations are much more clear than any of my high school teachers, and I'm a U.S. native.

[agustinapera]

I am from Argentina, and and can understand you, the first time i listened a native speking I understand nothing, but your English is very fluently so let me understand, you are a genius Teaching. You have a new subscription

[sunnyrawa]

No-one can beat you in explanation sir. Pretty clear and understandable for beginner students like me .thank you so much sir.

[jeovani]

Even not being native speaker i can understand clearly your whole explanation. Very nice to hear you! Thanks!