Primary English | Participial Adjectives Lesson Prep Guide (for tutors) | -ed for Feelings, -ing for Causes, 16 Items

2026-11-08

Tutor lesson-prep guides · Primary English

Students write “I am boring” when they mean “I feel bored”, and the meaning flips. One rule settles it: -ed names the feeling, -ing names the cause.

Objectives — Students can: (1) judge any -ed and -ing pair with the rule that -ed names a feeling and -ing names a cause; (2) answer the 16-item drill and justify each answer; (3) use both positions, before a noun and after be, writing two sentences with the same adjective.

01 Prerequisites (3-minute check)

If any of these fails, fix it before the lesson starts.

Skill	Quick check	Pass mark
Adjective position	Before or after the noun	a big dog; the dog is big
The verb be	How am, is and are work	I am; he is; they are
The -ing form	How verbs spell -ing	bore becomes boring

02 Lesson flow (45 minutes)

Time	Stage	Tutor does	Student does
0-6 min	Diagnostic	Show “I am boring” and “The film is boring” and ask which is wrong	Vote and explain
6-16 min	One rule	-ed names the feeling, -ing names the cause	Copy it with two examples
16-28 min	Ten common pairs	From bored/boring to satisfied/satisfying, 10 pairs	One sentence per pair
28-36 min	Two positions	a boring film against the film is boring	Two sentences, one word
36-43 min	16-item drill	-ed for people in 8 items, -ing for things in 8	Self-mark
43-45 min	Exit check	Three items collected and marked	Work alone

03 Teaching script (read it out)

Scene 1: One rule decides it

The rule has two halves: -ed names the feeling (The boy was bored) and -ing names the cause (The film was boring).
So “I am boring” does not mean “I feel bored”; it means “I am a dull person”. The fix is to change the word to bored and leave the position alone.

Ask students: rewrite “I am boring” so it says what they meant, and explain why the word changes.

Scene 2: One word, two positions

Before a noun: a boring film. After be: The film is boring. Same word, two slots, so students learn one set of words with two placements rather than two vocabularies.
Run all 10 pairs through that single pattern and one lesson covers the highest-frequency set: bored, interested, excited and tired.

Ask students: write one sentence with interested before the noun and one after be, both with a subject.

Scene 3: Sixteen items: ask who has the feeling

The drill has a fixed step: ask whether the sentence is about a person or a thing. People have feelings, so -ed; things cause feelings, so -ing. Of the 16 items, 8 take -ed for people and 8 take -ing for things.
A first attempt is usually around 75 per cent, that is 12 of 16 right, and the misses cluster on mixed sentences such as “The news was surprising to the students”: the subject is news, a thing, so -ing wins even though students appear in the sentence.

Ask students: rewrite each missed item and label its subject as person or thing.

04 Question types and worked steps

Type	Example	Steps	Answer
Two-way choice	bored or boring	Find whether the subject is person or thing	Write the reason beside it
Error correction	Sentences such as I am boring	Change only the word	Explain what the wrong version says
Position rewrite	Same word in two positions	Before the noun or after be	Both sentences need a subject
Scene sentence	Describe a feeling in a scene	Decide who has the feeling	One adjective per sentence

Sanity check (teach this): Sanity checks: -ed and -ing are two directions of one word, not two unrelated words; I am boring means “I am dull”, not “I feel bored”; twelve right out of sixteen is 75 per cent, not 12 per cent.

05 Independent practice (3 questions)

Question	Answer	What to watch
Ten pairs	Match each -ed with its -ing	Are they treated as unrelated
Sixteen items	Label each subject person or thing	Does the reason match the answer
Positions	Same word, both slots	Is be present in the second
Scene sentences	Five scenes, one sentence each	Is the direction correct

06 Common mistakes and what to say

Mistake	Student writes	Say this
Feeling read as character	I am boring, meaning I feel bored	That says you are dull; for the feeling write bored.
Choosing -ed on sight of a person	The news was surprised.	The subject is news, a thing, and things cause feelings, so surprising.
-ing on both sides	I am interesting in music.	You are the one with the feeling, so interested; interesting describes the thing.
Wrong slot	a film boring	Put the adjective before the noun, a boring film, or write The film is boring.

07 Homework (paper, section and question numbers)

Primary English chapter index — Every chapter in the subject
All prep guides — Parallel chapters
Redo this chapter — Redo the 16 items and label each subject person or thing

08 Exit check (last 5 minutes)

Question	Answer	Decision
What -ed names	The feeling of a person	Saying “things” means restart
What -ing names	The cause of a feeling	Saying “feelings” means redo act one
The news was ___ (surprise)	surprising, because the subject is a thing	Answering surprised means redo act three

09 Tutor FAQ

Must all ten pairs be memorised?

No. Master bored, interested, excited and tired first; the rest follow the same rule from the shared stem.

Is every -ed word about people?

Mostly, but read the subject: The teacher was bored is still a person. The question is always who has the feeling.

Is “I am very boring” wrong?

It is grammatical but means “I am dull”, which is rarely what a student intends, so flag it every time.

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A TutorZone lesson-prep guide. Written by the TutorZone team; questions and lesson flow are original and are not taken from any school or publisher material.