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Questions & Answers about Das Kind ist gelangweilt.
Why is it gelangweilt and not langweilig?
In German, langweilig means boring (describes something that causes boredom), while gelangweilt means bored (describes the person who feels boredom).
- Das Kind ist langweilig. = The child is boring. (not very nice!)
- Das Kind ist gelangweilt. = The child is bored.
So gelangweilt is the correct form when you want to say how the child feels.
What part of speech is gelangweilt here?
Gelangweilt is formally a past participle (Partizip II) of the verb langweilen, but in this sentence it is used as an adjective.
Structure:
- langweilen → gelangweilt (Partizip II)
- With sein
- Partizip II, it becomes a stative description: a state the subject is in.
So in Das Kind ist gelangweilt, gelangweilt works like an adjective that describes the state of das Kind.
What does the ge- in gelangweilt do?