What is the difference between ‘scared’ and ‘scary’? What do ‘scared’ and ‘scary’ mean?

Learn the how they’re different here and how to use them. Check it out!

In today’s lesson, I’m going to explain the difference between “scary” and “scared.”

A lot of students are confused about this. So, let’s get started…

“Scary” is an adjective that describes something.

It’s a characteristic of something. For example: A movie can be scary. A book can be scary.

Or even an experience or a person. A very good example is a monster. A monster is scary.

That’s a characteristic of a monster. Now, if something is scary, such as a monster,

that means that it makes other people feel scared.

Okay, so if I see a monster, I’m going to feel scared. “Scared” is kind of like “afraid” okay.

So, “scared” is not a characteristic of something.

It’s a feeling or emotion that humans or some other living thing has, and it’s just temporary.

So I can feel scared for a few moments because of a thunderstorm or something like that,

but it’s not a feature or a characteristic of me. It’s just how I feel at the moment.

Okay, so I’m going to give some example sentences now.
“We heard a lot of gunshots last night. We were very scared.”

“John was in the forest and a bear started running towards him. He was really scared.”

“Did you see the movie last night? That movie was scary. It had a lot of monsters in it.

There’s a new man that moved into the house next door. He looks a little bit strange and kind of scary.”

“John was flying to Europe last week and there was a problem with the airplane. He said it was a very scary situation.”

Okay, I hope that this video helped you understand the difference between “scared” and “scary.”

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Thanks for watching, and have a great day.

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