Unit 5.1
Active and Passive Adjectives
Print This Post
Advertising
Introduction
Adjectives are determiners that can be placed in two different positions within a sentence to modify or describe a person or a thing.
Adjectives can be used with active or passive voice.
Form
The active and passive adjectives can be created as follows:
- active adjectives with suffix -ing;
- passive adjectives with suffix -ed.
Example
Active adjectives:
- I’ve got some exciting news for you.
- Her answer was amazing!
- The film is so boring!
- They found the topic very interesting.
Passive adjectives:
- I was surprised by her reaction to the news.
- Her mother was disappointed with him.
- We are tired of lying to our parents.
- They are worried about their economic situation.
Use
We use active adjectives to express that somebody or something is causing a particular effect.
We use passive adjectives to express that somebody or something is experiencing a feeling or emotion.
Summary
Adjectives can be used either in an active or passive voice, with a significant difference in meaning.
- Active adjectives, with suffix -ing, express the idea of something or someone causing a particular event or effect.
- Passive adjectives, with suffix -ed, express the idea of something or someone experiencing a particular event or effect.
For example:
— “This class was boring!” = We use the active voice because it is the class that causes the boring situation.
— “I was bored during the lesson.” = We use the passive voice because the subject (I) is the one who experiences the action and gets bored.
Let’s revise this content within the {Form} section. Take a look at the {Example} section that shows its use within a context.
Exercises
Content Rating
Please, tell us how to improve the content here.
What did you think of our explanations and exercises?
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
Loading...Ambassadors
Open TextBooks are collaborative projects, with people from all over the world bringing their skills and interests to join in the compilation and dissemination of knowledge to everyone and everywhere.
Become an Ambassador and write your textbooks.
Online Teaching
Become a Books4Languages Online tutor & teacher.
More information here about how to be a tutor.
