-ed and -ing Adjectives: Bored or Boring? Rules and Examples

An adjective ending in -ed tells us about a feeling. It describes what is happening inside a person: their mood, their reaction or their state. We use it after be, feel, look, seem and get, and before nouns like person, face or students.

Think of the question How do you feel? The answer is often an -ed adjective: I feel tired, I'm excited, she looks worried. Animals can have feelings too, so you can say The dog was frightened.

Things cannot have feelings, so we normally do not use -ed adjectives for things. A film cannot be bored and a book cannot be interested.

An adjective ending in -ing describes the thing, situation or person that causes a feeling. If a film makes you feel bored, the film is boring. If a trip makes you feel tired, the trip is tiring.

Think of the question What is it like? or What was it like? The answer is often an -ing adjective: The lesson was interesting, the journey was exhausting, the news is shocking.

People can be -ing too. An interesting person is someone who makes other people interested. An annoying person makes other people annoyed. Be careful with this one, because it describes how others see the person, not how the person feels.

The easiest way to choose is to ask: is this word about the feeling or about the cause? Look at these pairs together.

The film was boring, so I was bored. The cause is the film, and the feeling is mine. The news was shocking, and everyone was shocked. The test was confusing, so the students were confused.

This matters a lot when you talk about yourself. I'm bored means I feel no interest right now. I'm boring means other people find me dull, which is probably not what you want to say. In the same way, I'm interested means you want to know more, but I'm interesting is a strange thing to say about yourself.

Like other adjectives, these words can go after be and other linking verbs (be, feel, look, seem, get, become) or before a noun.

After be: The game was exciting. I was excited. Before a noun: an exciting game, an excited child.

You can make them stronger with very, really, so, quite and a bit: I'm a bit tired, it was really interesting. Some pairs, such as amazing, exhausted, terrified and fascinating, are already very strong. With these, we usually use really or absolutely, not very. Say absolutely exhausted, not very exhausted. Read more in gradable and non-gradable adjectives.

When there are several adjectives before a noun, the opinion word usually comes first: a boring old film, an exciting new job. See adjective order.

Most -ed and -ing adjectives are long words, so we make comparatives and superlatives with more and most: more interesting, the most boring, more relaxed. We do not add -er or -est: say more tiring, not tiringer. For the full rules, see comparatives and superlatives.

After an -ed adjective we often add a preposition and a noun, or a to-infinitive: interested in art, worried about money, surprised to hear the news. After an -ing adjective, a common pattern is It's + adjective + to-infinitive: It's interesting to learn about other cultures.

These adjectives are part of a larger family of feeling words. To build your list, read feelings and emotions vocabulary.

In conversation, these adjectives are everywhere. People use them to react to news, to describe their day and to ask how someone feels. You will often hear short reactions like That's amazing!, How annoying! and That's so embarrassing!

A good habit is to answer How was it? with an -ing adjective and How are you? or How do you feel? with an -ed adjective. In informal British English, knackered is a common word for very tired, and in both British and American English people often say I'm stressed or I'm stressed out. For more natural reactions, see small talk in English.