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How to use ‘bored’ and ‘boring’

How to use ‘bored’ and ‘boring’

October 7, 2014 By Nestor Leave a Comment

The adjectives bored and boring are often confusing for English learners. In fact, the meanings of these two words are very different as we will see in this post.

bored

If you say that someone is bored, this means that this person is feeling tired and unhappy because something is not interesting or because there is nothing to do.

She was so bored that she fell asleep.

boring

If something or someone is boring, this means that this thing or person is not interesting.

The TV show was so boring that she decided to change the channel.
Jim is so boring. Nobody likes talking to him.

Typical mistake

Many learners say: “I’m very boring” when they mean to say “I’m very bored.” Be careful with this sentence — boring is a negative character trait!
Look at the picture at the top. Is the girl bored or is she boring? The answer is that she is bored. She is bored because the TV show is boring. Since we don’t know anything about her character, we cannot say that she is boring.

Filed Under: Confusing words in English

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