A mouthful of English

Lots of adjectives have an –ed ending in English. This is because they come from regular verbs like surprise , embarrass , confuse , annoy , or worry . These verbs have past participle forms ending in –ed that can be used as adjectives. Many of these adjectives can be used to say how we feel – inspired , excited , relaxed , or puzzled , for example. Can you form the –ed adjectives from the following verbs? You’ll find the answers below. Key: embarrassed; confused; interested; disappointed; frightened; worried; tired; annoyed; amused; shocked; surprised; bored; depressed. Now, which ones would you use to describe the faces at the top?

In English we often use adjectives like bored and interested to say how we feel. A story, a situation, or another person can make us feel intrigued , embarrassed, or disappointed . We are often tired or stressed after a working week, and relaxed at the weekend. Surprised, depressed, amused, annoyed, and puzzled are other examples of –ed adjectives that express how people feel. They all come from verbs, and each of them has a relative – another adjective ending in – ing. The words in pairs like shocked/shocking and bored/boring look so similar because they come from the same verbs – shock and bore . Both confused and confusing come from confuse , although they have different meanings – which is confusing for some people. In such pairs, the –ing adjective describes what makes you feel in a certain way, while the –ed adjective describes how you feel. So, when something is interesting (it interests you), you are interested (you feel interested).