{"id":176593821,"date":"2019-05-13T16:36:46","date_gmt":"2019-05-13T23:36:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lingq.com\/blog-new\/?p=176593821"},"modified":"2026-02-03T00:36:29","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T08:36:29","slug":"common-english-mistakes-ed-versus-ing-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lingq.com\/blog\/common-english-mistakes-ed-versus-ing-words\/","title":{"rendered":"Common English Mistakes: ~ed Versus ~ing Words"},"content":{"rendered":"

The proof is in the pudding, the saying goes. However, when it comes to some common English mistakes surrounding adjectives, I\u2019d say the truth is in the suffix. Namely, there are a ton of English adjectives out there that look or sound alike but are completely different, especially when we\u2019re talking about the -ing and -ed suffixes.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here are just a few examples of that:<\/b><\/p>\n

bored vs. boring<\/span><\/i>
\ninterested vs. interesting<\/span><\/i>
\nsurprised vs. surprising<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Do any of these sound familiar? If so, it\u2019s because English learners, in general, commonly make mistakes with adjectives that end in either -ing and -ed. <\/span><\/p>\n

In my experience (trust me, I\u2019ve asked my students about this), English learners often think that adjectives ending in -ing are used exclusively with <\/span>things <\/span><\/i>while -ed adjectives are used with <\/span>people<\/span><\/i>. In doing so, they confuse these suffixes with one another.<\/span><\/p>\n

Quite frankly, they aren\u2019t too far from the truth here\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n