PARTICIPIAL ADJECTIVESUse of Participial Adjectives

Participial adjectives are verbs used to describe nouns. To use verbs as adjectives, they have to be in their present participle and / or past participle forms.

The key is to remember which forms are used to describe people, things, or both.

Examples:

1.I’m interested in meeting the new English teacher.

2.Her classes seem to be interesting.

The verb interest (= interesar) is used in both their participial forms to describe people (sentence 1) and thing (sentence 2).

past participle

present participle

Here are some sentences for you to practice finding the participial adjectives:

1.The way your brother solved that problem was amazing.

2.The patient is feeling depressed because of the bad news.

3.The music you played was so entertaining that all the people

looked very relaxed while you were performing.

4.Everyone likes uncle Tom because he is a pleasing person.

5.Last night’s romantic movie was very touching.

6.At this point, a foot massage would be very soothing for me.

7.We don’t like to watch boring dramas.

Answers in the next slide.

Here are some sentences for you to practice finding the participial adjectives:

1.The way your brother solved that problem was amazing.

2.The patient is feeling depressed because of the bad news.

3.The music you played was so entertaining that all the people

looked very relaxed while you were performing.

4.Everyone likes uncle Tom because he is a pleasing person.

5.Last night’s romantic movie was very touching.

6.At this point, a foot massage would be very soothing for me.

7.We don’t like to watch boring dramas.

There isn’t a rule of thumb that will tell you which verb forms are used for people, things, or both.

The best recommendation is to learn participial adjectives as you use them, and the help from an instructor is absolutely necessary.

There’s no secret. Start with a basic list of participial adjectives and practice them until you master them.

Then, and once you’ve mastered that first batch of adjectives, make the list a little bigger and continue the same process.

If you’re persistent enough, before you notice it, you’ll have a great command of a respectable list of participial adjectives.

If you need more information, please refer to your teacher. Most likely he /she will have a lot more exercises for you to practice.

Good luck!