What is the difference between Interesting and Interested?
I was chatting with someone last weekend and she made the statement below:
I was really interesting in the child, but I couldn’t do anything to help her.
The sentence is incorrect; unfortunately, I didn’t know how to say that to her. I can only hope she gets to read this.
Although Interesting and Interested are both adjectives, however, they are used in different contexts.
Interested describes how someone feels, while Interesting describes the people or things that cause the feeling.
1. Interested is an adjective that describes a person or people who like something and want to know more about it. See examples:
- I was really interested in the child.
- I am interested to know more about.
- There are three students who are interested in chemistry.
2. Interesting is an adjective that describes the thing that a person or people are responding to. Things that we like and want to know more about are interesting. See examples:
- This is one of the most interesting books I’ve read all year.
- It will be interesting to see how she decides to spend the money.
- This country has an interesting history.
