Participial adjectives

Verbs that describe reactions

Verbs are the action words in a sentence that describe what the subject is doing, but there are verbs that written in a certain way can describe reactions to someone or something. For example:

She confuses me (verb to describe an action)

He was confused (verb to describe a reaction)

He made faces to amuse her (verb to describe an action)

This type of verbs are called Participial adjectives. Participle is a form of a verb that can be used in compound tenses of the verb.

There are 2 types of participle in English:

∽Past Participle (usually ends in -ed)

∽Present participle (ends in -ing)

Some participles can be used as adjectives.

PRESENT PARTICIPLES (-ing)

We use this type of participles to describe someone or something that causes a reaction.

The story was disgusting.

He was really boring.

PAST PARTICIPLES (-ed) 

 We use past participles to describe a person's reaction to someone or something.

I was disgusted by the story.

I was bored because of that guy.

Examples:

Laura is surprised by your story (The story is the one causing a reaction in Laura)

 

The story was really surprising (The story itself was surprising, unbelievable)

 

 

More information: 

https://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/participle-adjectives.html