Unit 4: Word-formation: Participle Adjectives : cours 1 Bac SM

1Course Learning Objectives

This section outlines the key competencies students are expected to develop by the end of this lesson on participle adjectives, in alignment with the Moroccan 1st year baccalaureate English curriculum.

Learning Objectives Overview

Objective 1

Identify -ing and -ed participle adjectives accurately in written texts.

Objective 2

Understand the word-formation process: how adjectives are derived directly from verbs.

Objective 3

Distinguish between the active meaning of -ing adjectives (cause of a feeling) and the passive meaning of -ed adjectives (experiencer of a feeling).

Objective 4

Form the correct participle adjective from a given verb according to the sentence context.

Objective 5

Select the appropriate -ing or -ed form to complete sentences with grammatical and semantic accuracy.

Objective 6

Identify and correct common errors in the use of participle adjectives.

Objective 7

Apply participle adjectives in descriptive and narrative writing tasks as required by the Regional English Exam.

By the end of this lesson, students will have developed both receptive skills (reading and identifying) and productive skills (writing and correcting) related to participle adjectives. These competencies are directly tested in the Moroccan 1st Year Baccalaureate Regional Exam, particularly in grammar, vocabulary, and written expression tasks.

	$Competency$	$Skill Type$	$Exam Relevance$
$1$	$Identify -ing / -ed adjectives in texts$	$Receptive (Reading)$	$Grammar & comprehension tasks$
$2$	$Understand verb \to adjective word-formation$	$Conceptual$	$Vocabulary tasks$
$3$	$Distinguish cause (-ing) vs. experiencer (-ed)$	$Conceptual + Productive$	$Grammar correction tasks$
$4$	$Form participle adjectives from verbs$	$Productive (Writing)$	$Fill-in-the-blank exercises$
$5$	$Choose the correct -ing or -ed form in context$	$Productive (Writing)$	$Multiple-choice & gap-fill$
$6$	$Detect and correct usage errors$	$Analytical$	$Error correction tasks$
$7$	$Use participle adjectives in writing tasks$	$Productive (Writing)$	$Written expression section$

Summary of learning objectives, skill types, and their relevance to the Regional English Exam.

Receptive Skills

The ability to recognize and understand participle adjectives when reading — e.g., spotting 'boring' or 'bored' in a passage and understanding which form is used and why.

Productive Skills

The ability to actively use participle adjectives correctly in written sentences — e.g., choosing 'frightening' over 'frightened' to describe a horror film.

Word Formation Awareness

Understanding how a base verb (e.g., 'interest') generates two adjective forms ('interesting' / 'interested') with distinct grammatical roles and meanings.

Why These Objectives Matter

Participle adjectives are a high-frequency error area for Moroccan baccalaureate students. Confusing 'bored' and 'boring', or 'excited' and 'exciting', leads to meaning errors that affect both grammar and writing scores.

Mastering these objectives ensures students can handle all question types involving participle adjectives: identification, formation, gap-fill, error correction, and free writing.

The Regional Exam regularly includes word-formation tasks and descriptive writing prompts where accurate use of participle adjectives is essential for a high mark.

Before studying participle adjectives, students should already be comfortable with a small set of foundational grammar concepts that this lesson builds upon directly.

Verb

A word that expresses an action (run, write), a state (be, seem), or an occurrence (happen, become). Every English sentence must contain at least one verb. Example: "She reads every evening." — reads is the verb expressing an action.

Present Participle

Formed by adding -ing to the base form of a verb. It can function as part of a verb phrase or, crucially for this unit, as an adjective. Example: walk \to walking, read \to reading, excite \to exciting.

Past Participle

For regular verbs, formed by adding -ed to the base form (work \to worked, bore \to bored). Irregular verbs have unique past participle forms that must be memorised (break \to broken, write \to written, know \to known).

Adjective

A word that describes or modifies a noun or pronoun, giving information about its quality, state, or characteristic. Example: a beautiful day, the film was interesting.

Forming the Present Participle follows one simple rule for most verbs: attach -ing directly to the base form. For verbs ending in a silent -e, drop the -e before adding -ing (bore \to boring; amaze \to amazing). For short verbs ending in consonant + vowel + consonant, double the final consonant (sit \to sitting). These same spelling rules apply when present participles act as adjectives.

$Base Form$	$Present Participle (-ing)$	$Base Form$	$Past Participle (-ed / irregular)$
$walk$	$walking$	$walk$	$walked$
$excite$	$exciting$	$excite$	$excited$
$bore$	$boring$	$bore$	$bored$
$amaze$	$amazing$	$amaze$	$amazed$
$interest$	$interesting$	$interest$	$interested$
$break$	$breaking$	$break$	$broken$
$write$	$writing$	$write$	$written$
$know$	$knowing$	$know$	$known$

Common verbs and their present / past participle forms used as adjectives in this unit.

Understanding Adjectives and Their Position is equally essential. Adjectives in English occupy two main positions in a sentence, and participle adjectives follow exactly the same patterns:

Attributive Position (Before the Noun)

Rule

The adjective comes directly before the noun it modifies.

Example

"an interesting book" — interesting modifies the noun book and is placed before it.

Example

"a bored student" — bored modifies the noun student and is placed before it.

Predicative Position (After a Linking Verb)

Rule

The adjective comes after a linking verb (be, seem, feel, look, become, appear) and still describes the subject.

Example

"The book is interesting ." — interesting follows the linking verb is and describes the subject the book.

Example

"The student feels bored ." — bored follows the linking verb feels and describes the subject the student.

Identifying the noun or pronoun being modified is the single most important skill you will use when choosing between an -ing form and an -ed form as an adjective. Before selecting the correct participle adjective, always ask: Which word does this adjective describe? Is it a person, a thing, or a situation? This question is the foundation of the rule you will study in the next section.

Quick Self Check

Can you identify the verb, the adjective, and the noun in this sentence? \to "The tired children fell asleep after the exhausting journey."

Verb: fell / Adjectives: tired, exhausting / Nouns modified: children (tired), journey (exhausting).

If you can do this comfortably, you are ready for the main lesson on participle adjectives.

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