I'm amazed. That's amazing.

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Materials Daily News

Adjectival Usage of the Participle

Intermediate

This lesson will boost the amount of adjectives related to emotions in your vocabulary.

Exercise 1

Sentence Practice

That movie was amazing!
I'm utterly amazed by that movie.
The movie was boring; I fell asleep.
I was bored by the movie; I fell asleep.
This week was long and exhausting!
After such a long week, I am too exhausted to do anything.
The neighbors complained about the annoying noise.
The neighbors were annoyed by the noise.
Most people find winter depressing.
Most people are depressed in winter.

Grammar Focus

Participles

Adjectival Participles are verbs that act like adjectives. There are two types: present participle and past participle.

Past Participle

The past participle is used in the passive voice. It is formed by adding –ed to the base form of the verb: verb + '-ed'.

Tom is not amused by sitcoms.

The subject of a past participle sentence is the person/thing that feels something: "Tom is not amused".

Present Participle

The present participle is used in the active voice. It is formed by adding – ing to the base form of the verb: verb + '-ing'.

Sitcoms are not amusing (to Tom).

The subject of a present participle sentence is the person/thing/situation that causes some feeling: "Sitcoms are not amusing".

Exercise 2

Sentence Practice

Present Participle

The movie was more boring than John had expected.
What a terrifying dog!
The amount of work he's had in the past few months is overwhelming.
This was a frightening experience.
She felt an overwhelming desire to laugh.

Past Participle

John was utterly bored by the movie.
I was terrified by the dog.
He has been overwhelmed with work in the past few months.
They were utterly frightened by the experience.
She was overwhelmed by a desire to laugh.

Exercise 3

Fill in the Blanks

The following sentences use present participle (-ing) adjectives. Fill in the blanks with the corresponding past participle (-ed) adjective.

She finds spiders frightening. → Spiders make her .

I find sports tiring. → Sports make me

The students find the class boring. → The class makes the students .

The mistake was embarrassing for the company. → The mistake made the company .

Learning English is so frustrating for me. → Learning English makes me .

The story was very depressing. → The story made us .

The children found the story fascinating → The story made the children .

English vocabulary is so confusing! → English vocabulary makes me .

My daily life is so exhausting. → My life leaves me feeling everyday.

Exercise 4

Sentence Building

Your friend is telling you about her recent travels. Respond to her stories with the phrases 'That's/That sounds + present participle' or 'I'm + past participle' and the words below.

Example

fascinating → That sounds fascinating! / I'm fascinated.

exciting
depressing
frightening
alarmed
amusing
exhausting
embarrassing
confusing
overwhelming
annoying