Question sent to my Personal Messages box by Baklis, Forum member (March 7, 2015):
Good evening, Sir Joe. As I skimmed through an English Module for K-12, I came across this sentence construction: “His song is boring to hear.” Take note that the word “boring” is used as a present participle in that sentence, as what is indicated on the module, but it seems to me that there’s something wrong with that sentence. For me, the word “boring” there serves as adjective and not a participle. Please do shed light on this. Thanks.
My reply to Baklis:
You are right in your perception that something’s wrong with this sentence in that K-12 English module: “His song is boring to hear.” It’s actually a redundant construction for the succinct “His song is boring,” in which it’s unmistakable that the word “boring” is an adjective rather than a present participle as indicated by that module. By definition, the adjective “boring” means “causing boredom” or “tiresome,” a state of mind or condition that in the context of a song is obviously perceived through the sense of hearing, so it’s superfluous—needless—to still qualify it with the modifying phrase “to hear.” (It’s as awkward as saying “Her home-cooked lasagna is satisfying to eat.”)
Despite being redundant, the sentence “His song is boring to hear” does use “boring” as a present participle. As I explained above, though, it does so in a semantically awkward and syntactically questionable way. Recall that by definition, a present participle typically expresses present action in relation to the time expressed by a verb, and is formed by adding the suffix “-ing” to the verb. It is then used in forming the progressive tense of the verb, as in “His song is boring me”—a perfectly legitimate use of the present participle “boring” where “bore” functions as a transitive verb in the sense of “to cause to feel boredom.”
To avoid confusion in the usage of the word “boring,” we must also keep in mind that it can also work as a present participle in two other senses:
1. “Bore” as a transitive verb in the sense of “to pierce with a turning or twisting movement of a tool,” as in “The workers are boring a tunnel for the railway” (the “boring” action has “tunnel” as direct object); and
2. “Bore” as an intransitive verb in the sense of “to make a hole by or as if by boring,” as in “The workers are boring the whole day tomorrow to finish the deep well” (the “boring” action has no direct object, the verb being intransitive).
I trust that this has adequately shed light on the questionable usage that you found in that K-12 module.
