Explanation & English Practice exercise: -ing & -ed adjectives EP4-10G

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Upper Intermediate Explanation and English practice exercise: –ing and –ed adjectives.

 

Introduction

The expression -ing / -ed adjectives is slightly misleading.

In fact, this is a way of referring to adjectives which are made using

a) the present participle (-ing)  

b) the part-participle. (‘-ed’)

This second type will end in -ed if the adjective is formed from a regular verb: bored, interested, excited etc, but not if the adjective is derived from an irregular verb: known, sold, lost etc

 

Look at these two sentences:

 

Simon is a boring young man.

Simon is a bored young man.

 

What is the difference?

The best way to understand this is to expand the two sentences.

boring: Simon does something: he bores people. His role is active. He is boring.

Bored: Simon doesn’t do anything. Something - life, school, family, the weather etc – bores Simon. His role is passive. He is bored by something / someone

 

 

 

Maria is a bored housewife.

 

[life in general, being a housewife (or whatever) bores her i.e. she is bored by life, by keeping house (passive)]

 

Maria has a boring job.

 

[the job does something i.e. it is active – it bores Maria]

 

Applying the rule

The rule is not complicated; in amounts to a simple question:

 

Is the noun, to which the –ing /-ed adjective is attached, an active subject or a passive object?

All the problems with this piece of grammar come from the difficulty of thinking out the logic of the situation: active or passive?

 

Further examples

So let’s take two more cases and see how the logic works:

Which of the alternatives is correct here? Try them first yourself, before looking for the answers below.

 

0. The accused / accusing man insisted that he was not guilty, that he had been nowhere near the scene of the crime on the night of the robbery.

00. Suddenly, the witness jumped up, pointed an accused / accusing finger at the defendant, and shouted: ‘you’re lying! You were there! I know it was you!’

 

So we apply the logic of active-passive. We start with 0. The man is on trial – there was a robbery, and people say that he did it. The police or others accuse him of doing the robbery. The man doesn’t do anything. His role is passive. He is accused by others of committing the crime. Accused is correct for 0. In 00., by contrast, the witness uses his / her finger  - by pointing it – to accuse the man. In other words, the finger is the active agent, it is accusing, and this is the answer for 00.

 

To see if you’ve got it, try these two: Are they the same: -ed then –ing, or the opposite: -ing then –ed? Answers at the bottom of the page after the exercise.

 

X. ‘Now listen carefully,’ said the film director, ‘at a giving / given signal, the crowd will begin to make angry noises and movements. At that moment, I want you to…’

XX. I would describe my aunt as a very giving / given woman: she is kind, generous and always available to help anyone with a problem.

 

 

When you have worked out your answer, check the answer and explanation at the foot of the page, then try these:

 

Exercise 1:

Cross out the incorrect alternative. Ask yourself – is the noun – e.g. months – doing something or having something done to it/her/him?

 

Example: I intend to study harder in the come/coming months.

NOTE: In some cases, the negative form of the participle is used. This does not change anything  - use the same method as above.

 

1. ‘Divide and rule’ is a well-knowing/well-known political strategy.

 

2. Please note the following/followed dates in your diary …….

 

3. Before the time of Christopher Columbus, the knowing/known world was much smaller than now.

 

4. The Progressive Party won a hard-fighting/hard-fought election.

 

5. Marrying/married life has its own particular problems.

 

6. Looking at me across the table, he gave a knowing/known smile – but what did he know?

 

7. Many blind people use seeing-eye/seen-eye dogs.

 

8. People say all religions have unseeing/unseen mysteries.

 

9. My sister thinks that there are uncaring/uncared politicians in every party.

 

10. I wish there were still lots of unexploring/unexplored places in the world.

 

11. Have you heard the frightening/frightened news from Kabiristan?

 

12. It’s disturbing when you hear an adult cry like a frightening/frightened child.

 

13. I would describe her as a woman of the marrying/married kind - she loves husbands!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Answers for X and XX

 

X is given – the signal is not doing any giving, the signal is given to the crowd by the director or another person – we don’t know who.

XX Here, the answer is giving. The sentence describes what my aunt does: My aunt actively gives (her care, time, support etc) to other people. That is, she is a very giving woman.

Now try the exercise.