Use of English: -ed/-ing adjectives and the so/such frame
A candidate is completing a PAU use-of-English gap-fill. Item 1: 'The concert was so ___ that half the audience left early.' The options are 'bored' and 'boring'. The candidate chooses 'bored' and explains: 'The audience felt bored, so the concert was bored.' Item 2: 'It was ___ a boring concert that half the audience left.' The candidate writes 'so', producing 'so a boring concert'. Item 3: 'The audience was ___ by the second half.' The candidate writes 'boring' because 'the audience was boring'. The teacher sees a single underlying confusion: the candidate is matching the adjective to the person's feeling rather than to the noun it modifies, and is also confusing 'so' and 'such'. The class has ten minutes before the bell.
1. Diagnose item 1 and explain the correct choice with a substitution test.
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The correct answer is 'boring'. The gap follows 'so' and modifies 'concert', the thing that causes the feeling. 'Bored' describes the experiencer, not the stimulus. A substitution test helps: 'The concert was dull' works; 'The concert was bored' does not, because a concert cannot feel boredom. The frame is 'so + adjective + that': 'so boring that half the audience left'. The candidate has reasoned from the audience's feeling to the concert, reversing the direction of cause.
2. Correct item 2 and explain the so/such rule in a way the candidate can apply under exam pressure.
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The correct form is 'such a boring concert that...'. Use 'such + (a/an) + adjective + noun' when a noun is present; use 'so + adjective/adverb' when there is no noun. The candidate wrote 'so a boring concert', which mixes the two patterns. A quick test is to cover the noun phrase: 'so boring' is correct; with the noun, 'such a boring concert' is required. The same contrast appears in 'so boring that...' vs 'such a boring concert that...'.
3. Correct item 3 and explain why the candidate's version changes the meaning rather than merely sounding odd.
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The correct sentence is 'The audience was bored by the second half'. The audience experiences boredom; the second half causes it. 'The audience was boring' means the audience caused boredom in others, which is a meaning-changing error, not a small slip. The preposition 'by' after a passive participle usually names the stimulus, so 'bored by' is the expected collocation. The candidate should ask: who feels the emotion, and what causes it?