Are your students confused or confusing
How many times have you heard students say “I am exciting” or “I am boring”? Grasping when to use -ED and -ING endings.........
with participial adjectives is very confusing. That is, the adjectives are confusing, and the students are confused! Even after countless written exercises, students often make mistakes with these “feeling” adjective endings while speaking. Here are some teaching tips to help clarify the situation for your students.
1. Sentence patterns
Start by reminding students of the two adjective patterns used in English sentences:
2. Feelings
Now you can remind your students that -ED/-ING adjectives are used to describe feelings.
Give some examples, such as interested/interesting, bored/boring, excited/exciting, tired/tiring, etc.
3. -ING adjectives: Be + Adj
You use the -ING ending when the noun is the REASON or CAUSE of the “feeling” adjective. In other words, -ING adjectives show why a person is feeling a certain way. -ING adjectives are used primarily with nouns that are THINGS.
Examples:
4. -ING adjectives: Adj + N
Examples:
5. -ED adjectives: Be + Adj
You use the -ED ending to show the RESULT or EFFECT. In other words, -ED adjectives describe how a person is feeling. -ED adjectives are used primarily with nouns that are PEOPLE.
Examples:
6. -ED adjectives: Adj + N
You can mention to students that this pattern is possible, but not often used with -ED adjectives.
Examples:
7. Cause and effect
For further clarification, you can give some examples of CAUSE and EFFECT (i.e., the REASON and RESULT) in sentence pairs. It really helps students to see the adjectives side by side like this.
Examples:
8. Exceptions
Here’s where it gets tricky for students! Can you use -ING with a PERSON instead of a THING? Unfortunately, yes, if the person is the CAUSE of the feeling.
Examples:
Make sure you explain to students that when they say “I am boring,” it actually means that they are uninteresting people, not that they are feeling bored!
9. Advanced
If you have higher-level students, you may wish to point out that we have several verbs in English besides “Be” that you can use to indicate how you’re feeling. Some examples include: feel, seem, look, appear, etc.
Examples: