Korean Job Discussion Forums

[chest rockwell]

Why do we say 'Are you bored?' instead of 'Are you boring?' You'd think it would be the other way round.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

2. Bored vs. Boring

��Bored�� means that you or someone else are tired of something. ��Boring�� is what you call something you don��t like because it is not exciting, not fun, or makes you sleepy.

A. Studying for tests is very bored / boring. It makes me feel bored / boring. It is bored / boring to sit in the study all evening memorizing a bored / boring textbook. Practicing English is lots of fun, but only studying for tests get bored / boring and makes me bored / boring.


3. Excited vs. Exciting

��Excited / exciting�� works like ��bored / boring'. If something is exciting, it makes you or someone else excited.

A. I��m excited / exciting because I��m going to do better on the excited / exciting listening tests. When I can��t understand the questions, listening tests are bored / boring and not excited / exciting. But I��m excited / exciting now because I��m learning more English. I hope I can learn more excited / exciting things by listening to English.

[wwidgirl]

this reminds me of the time that my korean friend said to me, "you are boring" when she meant "You are bored". Big difference. I was taken aback for a second until I realized what she meant.

[Hater Depot]

Perhaps it's not the grammar really at work, but I like to think of the difference between bored/boring this way --

"I am bored" as short for "Something is boring me" --> "I am being bored."

So, the new movie was boring. It bored me. I was bored.

[J.B. Clamence]

You can use present participles and past participles of verbs as adjectives. In this way, the present participle is active and the past participle is passive.

In this case, the verb is "to bore", as in "I like to bore people."

If the person is the doing the action, you use the active (ie - the present participle): "He is boring." In other words, he bores people.

If the person is receiving the action, you use the passive (ie - the past participle): "She is bored." In other words, someone or something is boring her.

You can do this with many, many verbs.

"to interest": "Art is interesting." "I am interested in art."

[jacl]

[Col.Brandon]

My first morning in Korea my new boss is driving me into town from the airport after my 11-hour flight, and he says to me, "You must be very tedious!" I thought, "Man, what's with the snap judgements?!?"

[tomato]

Now here is a case in which the English language really is ambiguous: have you noticed that suspicious means both "full of suspicion" and "meriting suspicion"?

[jacl]

Didjaknow, didjaknow????!!???!!?