Participles as adjectives

Some participles (like 'bored' or 'boring') can be used as adjectives. These are used in a slightly different way from normal adjectives. We usually use the past participle (ending in -ed) to talk about how someone feels:

• I was really bored during the flight (NOT: I was really boring during the flight).
• She's interested in history (NOT: She's really interesting in history).
• John's frightened of spiders (NOT: John's frightening of spiders).

We usually use the present participle (ending in -ing) to talk about the person, thing, or situation which has caused the feeling:

• It was such a long, boring flight (so I was bored).
• I read a really interesting book about history (so I was interested).
• Many people find spiders frightening (so they're frightened when they see spiders).

Be careful! 'I'm boring' is very different from 'I'm bored'! 'I'm boring' means I cause other people to be bored. This is not good! Here are some examples of when one person causes a feeling in another person:

• I was talking to such a boring guy at the party. He talked about himself for an hour!
• She's a really interesting woman. She's lived all over the world and speaks five languages.
• My maths teacher at school was really frightening! He was always shouting at the students.

These participle adjectives make their comparative by using 'more' (not -er) and their superlative by using 'most' (not -est):

• I was more frightened of dogs than spiders when I was a child.
• That book is more boring than this one.
• I think Dr Smith's lesson was more interesting than Dr Brown's.

• For 24 hours on the flight to Australia, I was the most bored I've ever been.
• I think this is the most interesting talk we've heard today.
• It was the most frightening film that he'd ever seen.

Exercise 1:  Participle Adjectives

Exercise 2:  Participle Adjectives 2

Exercise 3:  Participlesas Adjectives

Relative pronouns for people and things

Relative Pronouns

A relative pronoun is a pronoun that introduces a relative clause. It is called a "relative" pronoun because it "relates" to the word that its relative clause modifies. Here is an example:

• The person who phoned me last night is my teacher.

In the above example, "who":

• relates to "The person", which "who phoned me last night" modifies
• introduces the relative clause "who phoned me last night"

There are five basic relative pronouns: who, whom, whose, which, that*

Who (subject) and whom (object) are generally only for people. Whose is for possession.Which is for things. That can be used for things and people only in defining relative clauses (clauses that are essential to the sentence and do not simply add extra information).

Exercise 1:  Relative Pronouns (who / which / whose)

Exercise  2:  Who or Which?

Exercise 3:  Which, That, and Who