Ace English with Valerie Ng

When verbs are used as adjectives

There are two main ways in which a verb can act as an adjective:

verb + ed e.g. I'm not amused, scared, confused....etc
For regular verbs, these are normally the past participles of the verb. Click here to view the past participles for irregular verbs.
verb + ing e.g. amusing, frightening, confusing...etc.

So, which one would you use for which situation?

Let's examine the picture on the right

You can see that the little boy is annoying his sister and that she's annoyed. The little boy is doing the annoying while the sister is feeling, and being the object of the annoyance.

The table below shows some more examples of when to use which verb form.

Base Verb	to describe the source	to describe the feeling
amuse	the comedy show was funny and amusing	he was more amused by the puppy's behaviour than angry
annoy/ agitate	the noise is annoying/agitating	he was annoyed/agitated by the noise and couldn't do his homework
bore	this book is boring	I am bored by this book
confuse	the new map is really confusing	they are confused by the new map
excite	watching table tennis is exciting	people get excited playing and watching table tennis
exhaust	running a marathon must be exhausting	the runner was exhausted after having run 20 km
frighten	being lost can be frightening stop frightening your sister!	they were frightened by the loud noise your sister is frightened
interest	this article is really interesting.	they are interested to know more
relax	a warm shower is so relaxing	James Bond is always calm and relaxed
surprise	it's not surprising that people like ice cream - it's delicious	if you eat too much ice cream, don't be surprised that your stomach will feel bad
threaten	the bully was threatening the small child the storm clouds look threatening	the small child was threatened by the bully the likelihood of having a picnic was threatened by the appearance of the storm clouds
tire	walking 10 miles is really tiring	I'm so tired. I've just walked 10 miles