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Brooke123 Posted 21 years ago
Teaching

Need help with a sentence ...

0 Hi! 02br
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00I'm helping a Chinese woman who is preparing to take the TOEFL test, and we're working on her essays. I don't have any training in teaching English or ESL, so a lot of times it is hard for me to explain to her why a sentence isn't right. Anyway, a recent one tripped me up and I'm hoping someone knows the rule for this. 02br
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00In her essay, she was writing about how small her apartment is, and the sentence was something like: "It's frustrated that my closet is too small for all of my clothes to fit into." I told her that she should use "frustrating" rather than "frustratED", but that didn't make sense to her. Is there a way I can explain it to her that she'll understand how to use it in the future? 02br
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00Thanks in advance for your help! 02br
00Brooke 0-
  

Top answer

0 Hello 02br 02br 00I'm a learner from Japan. 02br 02br 00I think you can use some pairs of phrases similar in the relation to "frustrated" and "frustrating" 02br 02br 00[1] I am interested in the story. The story is interesting.

— Paco2004

  • 0 Hello 02br 02br 00I'm a learner from Japan.
  • 02br 02br 00I think you can use some pairs of phrases similar in the relation to "frustrated" and "frustrating" 02br 02br 00[1] I am interested in the story.
  • The story is interesting.
  • 02br 00[2] I am surprised at the news.
  • The news is surprising.
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7 Answers
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0 Hello 02br
02br
00I'm a learner from Japan. 02br
02br
00I think you can use some pairs of phrases similar in the relation to "frustrated" and "frustrating" 02br
02br
00[1] I am interested in the story. The story is interesting. 02br
00[2] I am surprised at the news. The news is surprising. 02br
00[3] I am bore
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0Yes. The mnemonic I use with my students is: 02br
02br
00'-ing' is the th01b00ing02b00 and ' -ed' is 01b00me02b00. 0-
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0 Re: "It's frustrated that my closet is too small for all of my clothes to fit into." 02br
02br
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00i) I am frustrated that my closet is too small for all of my clothes to fit into. 02br
00ii) It is frustrating (to me) that my closet is too small for all of my clothes to fit into. 0-
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0 [2] I am surprised at the news. The news is surprising. 02br
02br
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00Hi Paco, 02br
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00Why is at the news? not in the news? I am confused in this one. 0-
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0 Why "surprised 01b00at02b00" not "surprised 01b00in02b00"? That is a question difficult to answer. This "at" is not to indicate a place, but to indicate a thing that causes human emotions: angry at, astonished at, dismayed at, delighted at, glad at, grieved at, mad at, pleased at, puzzled at, surprised at, vexed at, etc. 02br
02br

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0 Thank you, everybody, for your responses. They were very helpful! 02br
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00Brooke 0-
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just tell her for ppl -ed is used n for things -ing...like:

the film is boring n I'm bored!
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