Participial Adjectives: Boring or Bored, Exciting or Excited

A participial adjective is a verb form doing an adjective’s job. A running tap, a broken promise, an exciting result, an exhausted team.

They come in two shapes, and choosing the wrong one produces the single funniest error in English.

-ing describes the cause, -ed describes the feeling

So I am boring means you bore other people. I am bored means something is boring you. Both are grammatical, which is why no spellchecker will save you.

The test: ask whether the noun causes the feeling or has it. A film causes interest, so it is interesting. A viewer has it, so they are interested. Things are usually -ing; people are usually -ed – though a person who causes the feeling takes -ing quite properly, which is what a charming host and an annoying colleague are.

Adjective or verb?

The same forms appear inside verb phrases, and position decides which you are looking at.

• The tap is running. – part of the verb, describing an action in progress
• The running tap wasted water. – adjective, sitting in front of the noun
• He has broken the vase. – part of the verb
• The broken vase was expensive. – adjective

A quick check: if you can swap in a plain adjective – the cold tap, the old vase – without breaking the sentence, the word was working as an adjective.

Once a participle becomes fully an adjective

Some participial adjectives have drifted so far from their verbs that they take very and compare like ordinary adjectives: very tired, more interested, most exciting. That is the sign a participle has completed the journey. Others resist – very broken and very running sound wrong, because those still feel like verbs.

A small group has an irregular -ed adjective that differs from the verb’s past participle: a drunken argument but he has drunk; a sunken ship but the ship has sunk. These pairs are fossils, and there are only a handful.

Practice

Pick the right form. Answers below.

1. The results were (surprising / surprised).
2. We were (confusing / confused) by the instructions.
3. He is an (annoying / annoyed) colleague.
4. After the flight she felt completely (exhausting / exhausted).
5. It was a deeply (satisfying / satisfied) meal.

Answers

Checked against Merriam-Webster, the Chicago Manual of Style and the AP Stylebook. Spotted an error? Tell us — see our editorial policy.