Name: English Tutor Nick P Lesson (376) The Difference Between Frightening Frightful and Frightened
Uploaded: 2019-11-11T01:39:54.000Z
Duration: 5 min 51 s
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Future simple

Hi this is Tutor Nick P and  this is Lesson 376. Today we're going to look at the

difference between frightening,  frightful and frightened . Okay. Let's take a look at

To-infinitive

the note here. If someone or something is frightening , it causes others to feel

fear or causes someone to feel fear. It's a little similar to you know,  other ones

that we covered before like bored and boring. Where if somebody is boring they

cause other people to be bored , but if you're bored

it means you feel bored. So this was very similar the difference between

frightening and frightened. All right. Let's,  let's continue here . Let's look at  the first

examples. So example number one. That,  that scene from this horror movie was

too frightening for small children. So it caused small children to have fear. So it

was frightening for the children. Okay.  Good.

Or number two here. It is frightening to think of the position,  we would be in if

he lost his job. So this ... maybe this might cause this family to have some

fear. Maybe the father thought that he might be downsized and they might be out

of an income. That could put fear into the family. So that would be very

frightening. It could be a frightening situation in that sense. Okay.  Good.  Now

let's take a look at frightened here.  Frightened means someone feels fear or

shows fear. So the the fear on their face or they feel fear,  especially suddenly.

Okay. So let's look at the first one. That frightened child hugged her mother

because she was afraid of a dog. So she is the small child is showing fear. She

hugs her mother and she hugged her mother.  Oh please,  please !

So she is showing fear. So in that case we say that she is frightened. Or number

two. My dog was frightened by the sound of thunder. Yeah.  I've seen some dogs get

scared about thunder before. So,  so of course,  the dog feels fear. So the dog is frightened.

All right. Now here were the X,  with the X,  this is where some students might mess

up,  especially students of ESL. They might confuse the difference between

frightened and frightening. So let's look at this first example here. Many

frightening passengers screamed when the plane experienced strong turbulence. No.

Of course this is wrong. That's why we have an X here. If you say the passengers

are frightening,  it means that the passengers are scary. They're scaring

other people. They're causing others to have fear. So of course with the

check. You should be saying this one . Many frightened passengers... Yeah they feel

fear,  so they are frightened. Many frightened passengers screamed when the

plane experienced some strong turbulence.  So this is exactly how we use it. This

would probably be one of the most common mistakes that students might make. If

they mix these two up. All right.  Now let's look at  frightful.  Frightful is a more formal,

higher-level,  educated word and tends to be more literary and more often used in

British English. All right. So remember if I say it's higher level it means that the

more educated you are,  the more likely you might use this more often.

All right. People of lower education , you don't hear them saying frightful very

often. It  tends to be more literary too, which means you're more likely to see it

written in books than just spoken directly out of your mouth. It

probably you mostly... you probably don't hear children use it. Although children

out of all these words children might use the word like scary more. And they

might use frightened but scary would probably be even more common for you

know , children. All right.  Let's continue.  So frightful also has a broader use. It can

be used to mean horror. You know,  or feeling horror or experiencing horror.  It

could be used for that. In that way it has similarities to both frightening and

frightened but it could also simply mean you know,  extreme in degree. In that case

that that's you know,  that's really not like frightening or  frightened. Okay. Or it

could mean feeling anxiety of stress too.  All right. So let's take a look at the

first example. They were in a frightful hurry. All right. Now this doesn't mean...

They are not in a  scared or afraid...  they're not afraid in the hurry. It

probably just means like extreme in degree. They were in a , a very serious

hurry. So they were in a frightful hurry.  So here's a use for frightful is used in

a different way. The weather outside is frightful.  I remember this from a Christmas

song too. We often may hear this too. It might mean more like causing anxiety or stress.

Could it mean scary ? Possibly. If it's really,  really bad. But it  probably means

causing more stress or , or anxiety.  Because it's difficult to go through or

the murder scene was quite frightful. Now this is more like causing horror or

feeling horror. Many bodies were discovered cut into pieces. Yes. So that

is that's , that's experiencing horror.  So we might use it that way  too. Okay.

Anyway,  I hope you got a better feel and know when  you might use one ...  in which

place rather than the other. Anyway I hope you got it.  I hope it was

informative. Thank you for your time. Bye- bye.