Lesson 5a - ING and ED adjectives

Students sometimes find it difficult to choose between adjectives that end in ING and ED

But if you understand the difference between active and passive

You easily choose the correct adjective

If you need an adjective to express  an active meaning then we choose “ING”

If you need an adjective that express passive meaning then you choose the “ED” ending

Let’s consider other examples

"Here some movies called “the illusionist”"

"I found the end of this film surprising"

Why did I say “surprising” because there is an active meaning here

The film did something to me

It surprised me so the end of the film was surprising

Here is another film “pulp fiction”

I think some of you have probably seen this film

Now, some parts of this film were shocking

Why did I choose “shocking”

Because it did something to me

The film has effect on me

And here is another film “speed” this film was very exciting

Now, let consider example of adjectives with the “ED” ending

This is “lord of the Rings”

The story is total 3 parts

And each part is very long

The story is very good but truthfully

By the end of each part, I feel very tired

Why do I choose  “tired”- an adjective with the “ED” ending?

Tired expresses the passive meaning

I’m emphasizing the effect of the movie have on me

How did I feel?

I felt tired and so something happen to me

Similarly, how did I feel when I watch “pirates of the Caribbean”

Felt a little disappointed

This story also has 3 parts

Now, I found the first movie’s part of  the Caribbean very interesting

But when I watch the second part I was disappointed

Disappointed again is the passive meaning

And I’m emphasizing the effect of the movie have on me

Participles are verb forms

In English there are present participles and past participles

Present participles end in “ING” as in boring, exciting, surprising, disappointing, etc

Past participles end in “ED” unless they are formed from irregular verbs. Example, bored, excited, written, forgotten, etc

Participles can have different functions

They are formed from verbs, but they are not always part of the verb in a sentence

Consider the 2 examples

Many people were crying by the end of the film

Here crying is the present participles and the part of the verb “were crying” is the verb in the past progressive

Second example,"the parents took the crying child out of the theater"

Here, the same participles is now an adjective. It modifies the noun

Crying describes the child

Now consider 2 the examples

"The film had excited a lot of interest "

“Excited” here is part of a verb, “had excited” is the verb in the past perfect

Second example, "excited moviegoers stood in line to buy tickets"

The same past participle is Now an adjective. It modifies the noun

“Excited” describes moviegoers

Now, the adjectives are called by different names: participial adjectives or verbal adjectives are two common terms

When participles are used as adjective, they express an active or passive meaning

Let’s talk about present participles

An adjective ending in “ING” expresses an active meaning

It describes someone or something that does an action

Examples, "the film is interesting"

"Johnny Depp is one of the most exciting actors"

"Some horror films are truly terrifying"

The adjectives in the 3 examples have active meaning

Someone or something is performing an action

In the first example, the film interests people, the film is interesting

In the second example, Johnny Depp excites people. So, we call him an exciting actor

In the third example, horror films terrify people, so we can say they are terrifying

So an adjective ending in “ING” commonly describe person or thing have effect on others

The person or thing creates emotions, feelings on others

But that’s not always the case

Consider the next 2 examples

"The aging actor still had many fans"

"The increasing sales pleased the producers of the films"

Here we still have adjectives that have active meaning because someone or something is performing an action but we’re not talking about an effect on others

We’re not talking about creating feelings or emotions on others

The person or thing performing an action but it's more aboutan ongoing action meaning the action continue over period of time

The actor is getting older so we can call him an aging actor

The sale is getting bigger so we can describe the sale as increasing sales

Now, let’s talk about past participles

An adjective ending in “ED” expresses a passive meaning

It can describe someone or something that receives an action

It often describes a feeling or condition

Example, "I lost my friends in the crowded movie theater"

Here the adjective “crowed” is to describe movie theater

It’s to describe the condition of the theater and it has passive meaning

The movie theater's not doing anything

It’s not performing an action

In fact, people are coming into it so, we could say receiving an action Something is being done to the theater

And in the second example, subtitles are a written translation of the dialogue

Translation is being described and translation  is not performing any action

Something happen to translation, so somebody wrote it, somebody made it

So we can describe it as translation

And as I said adjectives that end in “ED” commonly describe someone feelings

So look at the three examples

"I’m very interested in actors’ biographies"

"The actress seemed bored with life in Hollywood"

"The director felt satisfied with his work"

Here is a note on word order

Participial adjectives can be used like other adjectives

For example, we can use them before a noun as in the aging actor

We can also use them after a linking verb

For example, "the actress seemed bored"

Participial adjectives can be used with adverb of degree or comparison

Example, "I’m very interested in actors’ biographies", "very” is adverb of degree

Next example, "Johnny Depp is one of the most exciting actors"

So we can say more exciting, most exciting when I say adverb of comparison I mean comparative and superlative forms

Participial adjectives can also be followed by prepositional phrases

For example, "the actress seemed bored with life in Hollywood"

End of part 1, please go on to the second half of this lesson