There are many pairs of adjectives (形容詞) that describe emotions (感情を表す) in English, with one word ending in “-ed” and the other ending in “-ing”. They are very useful words but students are often confused (混乱する) about how to use them.
One example is the set of words “bored” and “boring”.
The -ed word bored is used to talk about how a person feels (人の感情):
He is bored – 彼は退屈しています。
The -ing word boring is used to talk about the thing (or person) that causes the emotion (感情の原因）:
The lesson is boring – 退屈な授業です。
Instead of saying “I am bored”, students sometimes make a mistake and say “I am boring” which would mean 「私はつまらない人です」…
To remember how to use these words correctly (正確に), it may be useful to understand their roots (語幹).
All of the -ed / -ing adjective pairs come from verbs (動詞).
For example bored and boring come from the verb “bore” (退屈させる).
Bored is the past participle (過去分詞) of bore and so the phrase “He is bored” could be directly translated (直訳) as 「彼は退屈させられている」.
Boring is the present participle (現在分詞) of bore and so the phrase “The lesson is boring” could be directly translated as 「授業は（彼を）退屈させている」.
Here is a list of a few more useful -ed / -ing pairs:
| bored/boring confused/confusing disappointed/disappointing excited/exciting frightened/frightening interested/interesting surprised/surprising tired/tiring worried/worrying | 退屈している/退屈な 混乱している/混乱させるような がっかりしている/がっかりさせるような 興奮している/興奮させるような 怖がっている/怖い 興味を持っている/興味深い 驚いている/驚くべき 疲れている/疲れさせるような 心配している/心配な |