A reader from Coimbatore has sent in this query: “Is it possible for a verb to function as an adjective? Please explain it with some examples.”
An adjective is a word that describes (modifies) a noun. Look at these examples: i) a beautiful girl ii) an intelligent student iii) a creative design. In these three examples, the adjectives ‘beautiful’, ‘intelligent’, and ‘creative’ describe the nouns ‘girl’, ‘student’ and ‘design’ respectively. Verbs can also modify nouns as in these examples: i) a broken bridge ii) a written apology iii) a damaged passport iv) a smiling baby v) a damaging relationship and vi) a dancing girl.
In the examples above, broken, written, and damaged are the past participles of the verbs (usually ending in –ed) break, write and damage respectively and smiling, damaging and dancing are the present participles of the same verbs (ending in –ing). Some past participles and present participles of verbs can function as adjectives and, therefore, they are called ‘participle adjectives’ or ‘participial adjectives.’
The participle forms of most verbs that describe emotion or feelings can be used as adjectives. These participle adjectives might confuse learners because the meanings of the participles are not the same. For example, the meanings of ‘frightening’ and ‘frightened’ are not the same.
When the past participle is used as an adjective, it is used to talk about how someone feels. Here are examples:
I am alarmed at the unemployment rate in India.
I was terribly bored during her lecture.
I am interested in football.
I was confused whether to use ‘interesting’ or ‘interested’ in the sentence.
The teacher told me how the student behaved in the class but I was not amused.
In the sentences above, the past participles forms (alarmed, bored, interested, confused, and amused) are used to express the feelings of the persons who utter the sentences.
When the present participle is used as an adjective, it is used to talk about someone or something that has caused the feeling. Here are examples:
The virus has spread at an alarming rate.
It was a boring lecture.
It was quite an interesting session.
Give me a list of confusing participle adjectives.
What an amusing lecture from the professor!
Now it is clear that the meaning of ‘boring’ is different from the meaning of ‘bored’. When you say someone is boring, what you mean is that the person is not an interesting guy. The sentence ‘The teacher is boring’ means the teacher causes the students to be bored.
The students are constantly bored by the boring teacher.
The child was frightened by the frightening noise made by the neighbor.
My students are always confused by the confusing participial adjectives.
A man’s character may be learned from the adjectives which he habitually uses in conversation– Mark Twain