3. Participial Adjectives

There is a class of adjectives that is formed from participles, both present participle (verb ending in –ing) and past participle (verb ending in –ed). Such adjectives are called participial adjectives . Although derived from verbs, they function like other adjectives to describe the nouns. The past participle stated here as ending in -ed refers to regular verbs. Irregular verb end differently

The present participle that ends in -ing  talks about the person, thing, or event, while past participle ending in -ed  says how people feel.

  • Present participle : He is damaging  his health by smoking excessively.
  • Past participle : He has damaged  his health through excessive smoking.
  • Present participle used as adjective : Excessive smoking has a damaging  effect on his health.
  • Past participle used as adjective : His damaged  health is caused by excessive smoking.

The present participle adjective tells us about something or someone that causes a feeling : amazing .

The past participle adjective tells us how someone feels about something or someone else : amazed .

  • Present participle adjective : The amazing  acrobatic display captivated the audience.
  • Past participle adjective : They stared at the magic performance in amazed  disbelief.

How the two different endings of participial adjectives are used

Examples:

  • Their annoyed  housemate told them to lower their voices. (Verb: annoy)
  • He has the annoying habit  of picking his nose..
  • The decayed  body of a cat attracted many flies. (Verb: decay)
  • The smell of decaying  meat was nauseating.
  • She made frustrated  attempts to look for the size she wanted. (Verb: frustrate)
  • It was a frustrating  experience when none of them listened to what I said.
  • We could see the interested  look on her face. (Verb: interest)
  • I must say it was a very interesting  book.
  • The painted  picture of a dodo's egg won the first prize. (Verb: paint)
  • The painting  work has been done to a professional standard.
  • The second paper is a written  test. (Verb: write)
  • She was chosen for her writing  skill.
  • The police are investigating the burnt  car..
  • A huge cloud of smoke rose from a burning  oil tank.
  • The excited  crowd waited for the actress to arrive.
  • It was an exciting  match.
  • My frightened  grandmother related about being chased by dogs.
  • Climbing that mountain was a f rightening  experience.

Modifying participial adjectives

Participial adjectives can be modified to show their intensity. To modify these adjectives, use adverbs such a s completely , extremely , fiercely , less ,  more , most , rather , really , so , very , etc.

Examples:

  • The police are investigating the completely burnt  cars.
  • A huge cloud of smoke rose from a fiercely burning  oil tank.
  • The very excited  crowd waited for the actress to arrive.
  • It was a really exciting  match..
  • My rather frightened  grandmother related about her being chased by dogs.
  • Climbing that mountain was an extremely frightening  experience..

Most participial adjectives can be both attributive and predicative Â

Examples:

  • It is a computerized system .
  • The system is computerized .
  • She is an intelligent little girl .
  • The little girl is intelligent .
  • This is an exciting new magazine .
  • This new magazine is exciting ..
  • I could hear irritating snores  coming from his bedroom.
  • I could hear snores that are irritating  coming from his bedroom.