Your five sentences
Read out your five sentences about how films made you feel. Your teacher will not correct them yet — they will just write down which adjective you used in each.
One question before the rule.
1. What is the difference between I am boring and I am bored?
Eight sentences, two patterns
Sort them before you read the headings
1. The film was boring.
2. I was bored.
3. The ending was surprising.
4. I was surprised.
5. The book was confusing.
6. I was confused.
7. The last half hour was exhausting.
8. I was exhausted.
Sort the eight into two piles first, then answer.
1. What kind of thing is the subject in 1, 3, 5 and 7?
2. And in 2, 4, 6 and 8?
3. So what does the -ing adjective describe?
4. And the -ed adjective?
The rule, and the tense
Two endings, two jobs
| Ending | Describes | Example |
|---|---|---|
-ing | The thing that causes the feeling | The film was boring. |
-ed | The person who has the feeling | I was bored. |
| Both, together | Cause and effect in one sentence | I was bored by the boring film. |
The pairs worth knowing
Tap each. Note the stress — it does not move between the two forms, so only the ending changes.
The test. Ask: is this thing doing the feeling, or receiving it?
A film cannot feel bored. A person cannot be boring to themselves. I am boring is grammatically perfect and says something you almost certainly did not mean.
This is the error the syllabus names for this unit, and it survives well into B2 in students who never had it corrected at A2.
And the past continuous — the form
| Form | Example | |
|---|---|---|
| Positive | was / were + verb-ing | I was watching it. |
| Negative | wasn't / weren't + verb-ing | I wasn't listening. |
| Question | Was / Were + subject + verb-ing | Were you watching? |
| Spelling | same -ing rules as Unit 6 | get → getting · write → writing |
Match each sentence to what its adjective is describing.
Write the adjective in brackets with -ed or -ing. Ask the test question first.
I watched a film last night that was completely (confuse). There were about nine characters and I was (confuse) for most of it. The first hour was quite (bore), honestly, and I was (bore) enough to look at my phone twice. But the ending was genuinely (surprise) — I was completely (surprise) — and I came out of it (move).
Both rules, at speed
Seven sentences, seven errors. Rewrite each one in full.
1. I was very boring during the film.
2. The book was confused.
3. She is a very interested person.
4. I was very surprising by the ending.
5. I was watch the film when she called.
6. While I watched the film, she called.
7. The last half hour was exhausted.
Put the parts in order to make one sentence with both rules in it.
How three things made you feel
Task card · Speaking
Three things you have watched or read recently.
Ninety seconds. For each one: what it was like (-ing) and how you felt (-ed). Both forms, every time.
- Say the pair explicitly: It was confusing, so I was confused.
- Use at least four different pairs from Phase 03.
- Set one of them in a scene, using the past continuous: I was watching it when…
- Your teacher stops you every time the wrong ending comes out.
Two decisions.
1. The film made you feel nothing at all. Which?
2. And about the film itself?
How many stops
Answer about the ninety seconds.
1. How many times were you stopped for the wrong ending?
2. Which direction did you get wrong?
3. Go back to your five sentences from last night. How many were wrong?
Before the plot
One question.
1. What is the test?
Before Lesson 4. Write down every word about films or books that you cannot say in English — the parts of a story, the people who make it, what critics say.
In Portuguese, or described. That list is next lesson.