TOEIC Link Part 5: Participial Adjectives — When to Use -ing and When to Use -ed
TOEIC Link Part 5 loves the choice between an -ing adjective and an -ed adjective: interesting or interested, confusing or confused, surprising or surprised. They come from the same verb, they look almost identical, and choosing the wrong one is one of the easiest mistakes to make under time pressure. The good news is that a single rule decides every single one of these questions. Once you learn it, you stop guessing and start answering on contact. This guide gives you the rule, the logic behind it, and the word pairs that appear most often on the test.
The core idea: -ing is active, -ed is passive
A participial adjective comes from a verb that describes a feeling or an effect. The two forms point in opposite directions:
- The -ing form describes the thing that causes the feeling. It is active — the noun is doing something to someone.
- The -ed form describes the person who receives the feeling. It is passive — something was done to the noun.
The presentation was boring. → The presentation causes boredom. The audience was bored. → The audience received the boredom.
Same root, opposite roles. The presentation does the boring; the audience gets bored. Ask one question for every blank: does this noun cause the feeling, or does it experience the feeling?
Apply the rule to a noun
The same logic works when the adjective sits directly in front of a noun.
an exciting opportunity → the opportunity causes excitement (-ing) an excited candidate → the candidate feels the excitement (-ed)
a confusing instruction → the instruction causes confusion (-ing) a confused customer → the customer feels confusion (-ed)
If the noun is a thing, an event, a report, a process, or a situation, it almost always causes the feeling, so it takes -ing. If the noun is a person, they usually experience the feeling, so they take -ed. This person-versus-thing shortcut handles the large majority of test items — but always confirm with the cause-versus-experience question, because a person can also cause a feeling (a boring speaker).
High-frequency pairs to recognize on sight
These business-context pairs appear repeatedly in Part 5. Read each pair until the split feels automatic:
- interesting / interested
- confusing / confused
- surprising / surprised
- exciting / excited
- disappointing / disappointed
- satisfying / satisfied
- tiring / tired
- frustrating / frustrated
- exhausting / exhausted
- encouraging / encouraged
- overwhelming / overwhelmed
- challenging / challenged
For each one, the -ing member modifies the cause (a disappointing quarter, an encouraging trend) and the -ed member modifies the experiencer (a disappointed investor, an encouraged team).
Worked examples
The quarterly results were ( ), so the board asked for a review. The results are the cause → disappointing.
Employees felt ( ) by the sudden change in policy. Employees experience the feeling → confused (or frustrated).
We received ( ) feedback from the focus group. The feedback is the cause → encouraging.
The new analyst was ( ) to learn she would lead the project. The analyst experiences the feeling → surprised / excited.
In every case, find the noun the adjective describes, ask whether it causes or feels the emotion, and the suffix follows.
The "by" and "about" clue
When the sentence continues with a preposition, it often confirms the passive -ed reading. A person who is -ed is frequently followed by by, about, with, or at.
The manager was impressed by the proposal. Customers are satisfied with the service. She was worried about the deadline.
If you see "( ) by/about/with," and the subject is a person, lean toward the -ed form — the person is on the receiving end of the action.
Common traps
- Picking by meaning instead of role. Both words are "about" the same feeling, so the meaning feels right either way. The role — cause or experiencer — is what decides.
- A thing that takes -ed. Occasionally a thing receives an action: a finished report, a completed form. These are ordinary passive participles, not feeling adjectives, and they correctly take -ed.
- A person that takes -ing. A person can be the cause of a feeling: a boring lecturer, an annoying coworker. Person does not automatically mean -ed; always run the cause-versus-experience check.
Make the split automatic
This question type rewards instant pattern recognition over careful reasoning. The fastest test-takers do not translate the sentence — they spot the noun, decide cause or experiencer, and mark the suffix. Build that reflex with focused Part 5 practice on EnglishBlitz, and connect it to the wider family of word-form and part-of-speech questions that share the same "read the slot, not the meaning" discipline. With enough reps, -ing-versus--ed becomes one of the easiest points on the whole section.
Summary
- -ing adjectives describe the cause of a feeling (active); -ed adjectives describe the experiencer (passive).
- Ask for every blank: does this noun cause the feeling or feel it?
- Things usually cause (-ing); people usually experience (-ed) — but confirm, because exceptions exist.
- A following by / about / with plus a person subject signals the -ed form.