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
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.