-ed vs -ing Participial Adjectives in Technical English
5 exercises — practise choosing between -ed (feeling) and -ing (cause) adjective forms.
0 / 5 completed
1 / 5
Which sentence correctly uses an -ed adjective to describe how the developers feel, and an -ing adjective to describe what causes that feeling?
"The developers were confused by the confusing error message" is correct: "-ed" adjectives describe the experiencer's state ("the developers were confused"), while "-ing" adjectives describe the source that causes that state ("the confusing error message"). Option A wrongly applies "-ed" to the message, which incorrectly implies the message itself is the one experiencing confusion rather than causing it. Option B applies "-ing" to the people, which incorrectly implies the developers are causing confusion in others rather than experiencing it themselves. Option D uses "-ing" for both, incorrectly describing the developers as the source of confusion instead of the ones affected by it.
2 / 5
Which sentence correctly describes a boring, unengaging technical presentation using the -ing form?
"The audience was bored...the presentation...was boring" is correct: the audience experiences the state ("bored"), while the presentation is the source causing that state ("boring"). Option A incorrectly applies "bored" to the presentation, implying the presentation itself feels bored, which doesn't make sense for an inanimate thing. Option B reverses both correctly-placed forms, describing the audience as the boring source and the presentation as somehow experiencing boredom. Option D also reverses the pattern from the correct answer.
3 / 5
Which sentence correctly uses -ed and -ing forms to describe a frustrating bug and the team's reaction to it?
"The team was frustrated by this frustrating intermittent bug" is correct: the team experiences the emotional state ("frustrated"), and the bug is the source causing that frustration ("frustrating"). Option A reverses both forms, incorrectly making the team the source and the bug the experiencer. Option C correctly describes the team but incorrectly applies "-ed" to the bug, implying the bug itself feels frustrated. Option D correctly describes the bug's causative role but incorrectly applies "-ing" to the team, implying they are the cause of frustration rather than the ones feeling it.
4 / 5
Which sentence correctly uses an -ing adjective to describe an exciting new framework and an -ed adjective for the developers who feel excitement about it?
"The developers were excited about this exciting new framework" is correct: the developers experience the emotional state ("excited"), and the framework is the source generating that excitement ("exciting"). Option B reverses both, describing the developers as the exciting source and the framework as somehow feeling excited. Option C correctly describes the developers but wrongly applies "-ed" to the framework. Option D correctly describes the framework but wrongly applies "-ing" to the developers.
5 / 5
Which sentence correctly uses -ed and -ing forms across two clauses describing a surprising outage and the on-call engineer's reaction?
"...engineer was surprised by the outage, which was surprising..." is correct: the engineer experiences the emotional state ("surprised"), while the outage is the source causing that surprise ("surprising"), and this -ed/-ing distinction is applied consistently and correctly to each noun. Option B incorrectly reverses the form for the engineer ("surprising") and also misapplies "-ed" to the outage. Option C correctly identifies the engineer's state but wrongly applies "-ed" to the outage instead of "-ing". Option D wrongly applies "-ing" to the engineer, treating them as the source of surprise rather than the one experiencing it, though it does correctly keep "-ing" for the outage.