Grammar: Word classes: Verbs: Verb formation

Participles (-ing/-ed)

Using participles to describe & classify: Teaching suggestions

	Students tend to overuse the -ing form for adjectives. This suggests that it might be worthwhile spending more time helping students with -ed adjectives, perhaps in descriptions.
	When teaching -ing and -ed adjectives, it makes sense to exploit the way they are used to identify feelings and the causes of feelings. For example, tasks may involve students matching -ed adjectives with pictures of people's expressions (excited, bored, frightened, etc) or matching causes (an exciting film, a boring lesson, a frightening animal, etc) with people's feelings.
	When teaching the difference between -ing and -ed adjectives, it may be useful to remind students of the following rule of thumb:

Things (and sometimes people) are -ing

that's amazing
it's quite embarrassing
it's so annoying

People (mostly) are -ed

I was amazed
We were horribly embarrassed
He was quite annoyed

Some students find it useful to use the following approach: Draw a box on the board and tell students it is a thing: things are -ing. Then draw two stick figures on the board and label them Ed and his girlfriend Edwina: people are -ed.  

Note that there are exceptions to this generalisation, but it may help you give less-able students a basic understanding of how to use -ing and -ed adjectives.