Interested or Interesting? | Participle Adjectives | Common Mistakes

Are you using participle adjectives correctly?

Is it clear when you should use 'interested' and when you should use 'interesting'.

Hello and welcome everyone,  this is Minoo at Anglo-Link.

I have noticed that many of you are still  confusing the 'ed' and 'ing' adjectives.

So, in this short lesson we're  going to look at their usage again.

You can watch my complete lesson  on adjectives and adverbs here.

To access the PDF version of this lesson, 

please use the link in the description  box to join Anglo-Link's PDF Library.

Okay! Let's start by looking at  what a participle adjective is.

A participle adjective, also  called participial adjective,

is an adjective from a verb root. 

For example the verb 'to interest'  has two participle adjectives:

Present Participle 'interesting', and Past Participle 'interested'.

Okay, let's look at usage now.

Let's say that the sentence  is: History interests me.

History is the subject.

History is generating interest in me.

So, we should use the Present Participle:  History is interesting.

'Me' is the object.

The action is affecting me.

So, now we should use the Past  Participle: I am interested in history.

The most common mistake I  hear is using Present Participle 

'interesting' instead of Past Participle.

And saying something like:  I'm interesting in history.

That's maybe because you think you're using the Present Continuous tense,

so be careful with this.

So, let's look at two more examples.

First example: John intrigues everyone.

So here, both the subject  and the object are people. 

John and everyone.

So, let's see what you would  choose for the two sentences below.

John is .......

And, everyone is ........ by John.

John is the subject. So, John is intriguing.

And 'everyone' is the object. So,  everyone is intrigued by John.

So, for John, which is the subject, we  use the Present Participle 'intriguing'.

And, for 'everyone', which is the object, we use the Past Participle 'intrigued'.

Let's look at the second example.

This situation upsets her.

So, this situation is .........

And, she is ......... about the situation.

Which adjective would you put in each sentence?

The situation is the subject. So, it is upsetting.

And, she has been affected by the situation.  So, she is upset about the situation.

So, for the situation, which is the subject, we use the Present Participle 'upsetting'.

And for her, who is being affected  who is the object of the sentence,  

we use the Past Participle 'upset'.

Now, remember that 'upset' is an irregular  verb. So, it's upset - upset - upset.

Right! That's the end of this short lesson.

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Thanks a lot for watching, and I'll see you soon in my next lesson.

Goodbye for now.