 Interesting vs. Interested This video is brought to you by the following English learning websites. What's the difference between interested and interesting? And other words like this. First, let's talk about what the words have in common. The meaning of the words is quite similar. Someone has interest in something. The difference has to do with perception. Who is perceiving what? If we're talking about the perceiver, we use interested. If we're talking about the thing or object being perceived, we use interesting. For example, I am interested in racket ball. Racket ball is interesting to me. You can think of it like this. The movie is interesting. The people are interested. Objects flows from the object to the perceiver. Movie to people. To describe the movie you say, the movie is interesting to the people. To describe the people you say, the people are interested in the movie. The movie causes the people to feel interest. Can the object of the perception be a person? Yes. Look at this example. The professor is interesting to the students. The students are interested in the professor. The opposite would be, the professor is boring. The students are bored. There's more. Let's dig a little deeper. This presentation will deal with the following. Other words that use this pattern. Linking verb usage. Verbs, adjectives, or what? Common collocations. Unusual pairs. Special noun usage. Shifting focus. One, other words that follow this pattern. This is the easiest thing to understand. Simply recognize the words that fall into this category. We'll look at them in pairs. This is a common, not a complete list. Interested. Interesting. Bored. Boring. Excited. Exciting. Amazed. Amazing. Tired. Tiring. Relaxed. Relaxing. Confused. Confusing. Annoyed. Annoying. Fascinated. Fascinating. Embarrassed. Embarrassing. Frightened. Frightening. Discouraged. Discouraging. Touched. Touching. Frustrated. Frustrating. Addicted. Addicting. Perplexed. Perplexing. Satisfied. Satisfying. Amused. Amusing. These words are often used with linking verbs. Think of linking verbs as equal signs. A equals B. The man equals healthy. For example, the man is healthy. The man was healthy. Linking verbs can be used in any tense. They equal excited. They are excited. They seem excited. Linking verbs include B, seem, appear, and perception verbs, such as look, sound, smell, taste, and feel. For example, she looks amazing. That sounds boring. You appear tired. Three, verbs or adjectives. We sometimes call the ing form the present participle and the ed form the past participle. That doesn't mean there are always verbs. In this case, the words are actually used as adjectives. Like other adjectives, they can be used after linking verbs and before nouns. For example, the city is huge. It's a huge city. This is basic adjective usage. The topic is interesting. It's an interesting topic. The woman is interested. She's an interested woman. Can these words be used as verbs? Yes, they can. And when used as verbs, they follow normal verb patterns. For example, the boy annoyed his mother. He is annoying his father now. This follows the subject verb object pattern. The verb annoy is used to describe an action, not a status. Action is described using a verb. Status is described using an adjective. See if you can tell the difference in these sentences. Eddie amazed his audience. This is verb usage. Subject verb object. Amazed is an action. Eddie is an amazing magician. This is adjective usage. Adjective plus noun. Describing the magician. He is amazing his audience now. Used as a verb. Is amazing is an action. His magic is amazing. This is used as an adjective. It's describing a status. The status of the magic. The audience is amazed. Is this action or status? What do you think? The audience is amazed. This is status. It's used like an adjective. Let's try some other examples. How will you complete the sentences? Use forms of the word relax. Feel free to stop the video if you'd like more time for this. Answers. The man is relaxing. This is an action. He's relaxing now. The man feels relaxed. This is a status. The man is relaxed. This describes the man's status. The sofa is relaxing. The focus is on the object here. The sofa. It is a relaxing sofa. This is indicating a status. It's used as an adjective. Here's a crazy sentence to help you remember. The relax man is relaxing on the relaxing sofa. The main verb is indicated in red here. Is relaxing. The subject is man. And relax is describing the man. Relaxing sofa. The sofa is kind of like an object here. And relaxing is describing the status of the sofa. Common collocations. These types of words are often used with specific prepositions. The prepositions are called collocations. Collocations almost always come with linking verbs. For example, be interested in something. Be tired of something. Be confused about something. Be worried about something. Be surprised at or by something. Be frightened of or by something. Be addicted to something. Be disgusted with something. For a complete list of these, see eslgold.com. There's a link in the description below. Collocations enable us to give an object to the stated adjective. For example, Mr. Curry is interested. No object is mentioned. Mr. Curry is interested in something. An object is mentioned. Mr. Curry is interested in horses. Object is identified. We do not say, Mr. Curry interested horses. Subject verb object does not work here. Mr. Curry is interested horses. Collocation is needed here. The in is required when it is used in this adjective sense. Be interested in. Mr. Curry is interested in horses. That's correct. Five unusual pairs. Not all words of this type have a corresponding ED or ING partner. For example, look at the pair scared and scary. I'm scared. The situation is scary. These are used as adjectives, indicating status. Scaring has different usage. You're scaring me. This is only used as a verb to indicate the action. Let's look at another one. Attracted, attractive. She is attracted to him. He is attractive. He attracts her with his smile. This is the subject verb object usage. And it's indicating an action. Here's another one. Be prepared or be ready. She is prepared. She is ready. Her speech is prepared. Her speech is ready. The status here refers to a person. She or an object. Speech. Prepare as an action verb is a little bit different. She is preparing her speech now. The ING form is only used in the action. Subject verb object, for example. We can also use it in the past tense. Yesterday, she prepared her speech. This is talking about a past action. Now, compare that to the sentence in the middle. She, yesterday, she was prepared. It's talking about her past status. Six, some of these words can also be used as nouns. Notice the usage in the following sentences. I am interested in soccer. I have an interest in soccer. She is concerned about her job. She has concerns about her job. Note the usage of have and the corresponding prepositions from the collocations. Be interested in, be concerned about. Seven, when these words are used as verbs, the focus shifts to the object. Emily is interested in poetry. Poetry interests her. The object becomes the new subject. I am not worried about my finances. My finances, don't worry me. Collocations with this form. When the focus is on the object, the ING form is used and two is needed in related collocations. For example, volleyball interests me. Volleyball is interesting to me. That discourages me. That is discouraging to me. Let's practice these in sentences. Tell whether these are correct or incorrect. Feel free to pause the video if you'd like more time. Answer key. If the original sentence was incorrect, I'll let you know and then I will say the correct sentence. For example, number one, the original sentence was incorrect. The correct sentence is, Jonathan is not interested in video games. Number two, the original sentence was correct. My economics class this semester is very boring. Three, incorrect. Connie was embarrassed when she went on stage. Four, incorrect. George was fascinated by Martha's personality. Five, incorrect. I thought it was a very disgusting story. Six, correct. He is excited about his upcoming trip to Malaysia. Seven, correct. Madeleine was touched by the old man's kindness. Eight, incorrect. He was frustrated with the service at the restaurant. Nine, correct. Yesterday I heard some surprising news. Ten, incorrect. The teacher's explanation was very confusing. Eleven, incorrect. Jill is or was satisfied with the results of the test. Hope that was helpful. Please click on the like button below if you benefited from this video. Also, don't forget to subscribe to our channel for more videos like this. Thanks for watching. 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