The result of the prolonged discussion was _____ .
- (a)disappointment
- (b)disappointing
- (c)disappointed
- (d)to disappoint
Correct — B, disappointing. After 'was' the blank needs an adjective describing the result, and the -ing form is the one that describes something which causes the feeling, so the sentence reads 'The result of the prolonged discussion was disappointing.'
- (a)disappointment — As a noun it would need an article — 'was a disappointment' — and the bare noun cannot stand there.
- (c)disappointed — The -ed form describes a person who feels the emotion, and a result cannot feel anything.
- (d)to disappoint — An infinitive after 'was' would suggest something arranged or destined to happen rather than describing what the result was like.
Adjectives made from verbs of feeling come in pairs — the -ing form describes the thing that causes the feeling, and the -ed form the person who has it.
Substituting a person for the subject makes the split obvious. The members of the meeting were disappointed, and what disappointed them was the result. Since the subject here is 'the result' itself, the -ing form is the only one that fits.
- Interesting, boring, tiring and surprising describe causes; interested, bored, tired and surprised describe people.
- 'A disappointment' works as a noun, but only with an article in front of it.
- Both forms come from the same verb, which is why they are so easily confused.
- Choosing the -ed form because it is the one heard more often in speech.
Asked as a blank-filling item testing which form of a word can follow 'was'.
I was ________ with the film; I had expected it to be better.
- (a) disappointed
- (b) disappointing
- (c) annoying
- (d) prejudiced
Answer(a) disappointed
The same pair of words, tested from the other side. There the subject is a person, so the -ed form 'disappointed' is right; here the subject is the result itself, so the -ing form 'disappointing' is right.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Choose the word that best fills the blank — The journey was long and ____ , and we slept as soon as we reached.
- (a)tired
- (b)tiring
- (c)tire
- (d)to tire
Answer(b) tiring — the journey causes the feeling, so it takes the -ing form.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Choose the word that best fills the blank — The audience was ____ by the sudden change in the programme.
- (a)confusing
- (b)confuse
- (c)confused
- (d)confusion
Answer(c) confused — the audience is the one that feels it, so the -ed form is right.