Pre-intermediate to Intermediate · A2–B1 4 exercises General English

Adjectives with -ed and -ing

-ed describes how someone feels; -ing describes the thing or person that causes the feeling.

A — Sample sentences

Words like suspect, trial, witness, detective, guilty, and investigation.

1) -ed adjectives — how someone feels

bored, interested, surprised, shocked, frightened, confused

• The witness was frightened during the interview.
• The jury were shocked by the evidence.
• I was confused by the detective's questions.
• She was surprised when the suspect was found innocent.

2) -ing adjectives — causing the feeling

boring, interesting, surprising, shocking, frightening, confusing

• The trial was long and boring for the public.
• The detective's statement was shocking.
• The investigation was confusing at first.
• The prison sentence was surprisingly short.

3) Common pairs in context

interested / interesting, worried / worrying, tired / tiring

• The lawyer was tired after the tiring court case.
• Witnesses were worried about the worrying lack of evidence.
• I was interested in the interesting details of the trial.
• The suspect was embarrassed by the embarrassing video.

Try it: -ed or -ing?

Choose the best adjective.

1. The witness was ___ by the detective's questions.
   (a) confused   (b) confusing   (c) confuse
2. The evidence was very ___.
   (a) shocked   (b) shocking   (c) shock
3. I was ___ when the jury announced the verdict.
   (a) surprised   (b) surprising   (c) surprise
4. The twelve-hour trial was extremely ___.
   (a) tired   (b) tiring   (c) tire

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  see somebody do / see somebody doing

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  Relative clauses 1 — who, that, which, whose, whom, where

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