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7.1.2: Participles as Adjectives

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    Past and Present Participle Adjectives

    Grammar-QuizzesVerb PhrasesVerb Complements › Participial Modfiers 1

    Expressing the Experiencer vs. the Agent (Cause) of an Experience

    Participles Ending in -ed vs. -ing

    –ED

    A past participle, ending in -ed (-en, or -t) modifies a noun that is the experiencer of the feeling or emotion.

    EXPERIENCER

    Monkey family watching

    VERB

    The family was entertained by the clown. passive verb

    ADJECTIVE

    The family was entertained. be + past participle form

    The family was very entertained. very + past participle form

    The family seemed entertained. seem + past participle form

    –ING

    A present participle, ending in -ing, modifies a noun that is the source (agent or cause) of the feeling or emotion.

    SOURCE

    clown juggling

    VERB

    The clown was entertaining the family. present progressive verb

    ADJECTIVE

    The clown was entertaining. be + present participle form

    The clown was very entertaining. very + present participle form

    The clown seemed entertaining. seem + present participle (Adj)

    Examples

    • Verb: Frighten
      • EX: The mask is frightening. I feel frightened when I look at the mask
    • Verb: Interest
      • EX: I am interested in the history of Iraq. Iraq has an interesting history
    • Verb: Confuse
      • EX: The homework is confusing. All of the students felt confused by the homework
    • Verb: Excite
      • EX: Disneyland is exciting. My kids are so excited about going to Disneyland
    • Tests for adjectives: (1) if you can put very (an adverb of degree) before the word, then the word form is an adjective or adverb but not a verb; (2) If you can replace the be verb with seem or become, then the participle form is an adjective and is not part of the verb. (Huddleston 533, 541)

      Also see Past / Participle Verb Forms 1 and Past / Participle Verb Forms 2 (for each verb).

      Related page: Participial Modifiers 2 (completed v. ongoing) breaking v. broken.

    Experiencer or Source?

    Determine which word best completes the sentence. Select your response from the list.

    1. My bath was (relaxing / relaxed). I feel (relaxing / relaxed) now.

    2. Joe is ( tiring / tired) because he had a (tiring / tired) day.

    3. How to get the cheese was (confusing / confused) . The mouse(confusing / confused)..

    4. Your jokes are ( amusing / amused). I am (amusing / amused).

    5. The TV program was (bored/ boring). I felt (bored/ boring) while watching it.

    6. My angry father's words (were upset/ upsetting). I felt (were upset/ upsetting).

    7. The nurse's big needle was ( frightened/ frightening). I felt ( frightened/ frightening) when she looked at me!

    8. Ted forgot to close his zipper. It was (embarrassed/ embarrassing). Ted felt (embarrassed/ embarrassing).

    9. My alarm clock wouldn't stop ringing. I was (annoyed / annoying). The sound was (annoyed / annoying)

    10. He heard a strange sound and was (concerned/ concerning). The strange sound was (concerned/ concerning).


    7.1.2: Participles as Adjectives is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts.

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