Verb-ing? -ed?

The day of the (dreaded, dreading) exam had finally arrived, causing much anxiety.

Dale hit on a good reason here, JS. Inanimate/not alive things can't have the feelings that a sentient entity can. Saying a "dreading exam" gives to a non-sentient entity feelings/emotions that it simply cannot have. There can be a boring movie/book but a movie or a book simply cannot be bored.

How then, you ask, can an exam be dreaded? The state of being dreaded is not one the exam feels, it describes the feeling of the people who have to take the exam.

The day of the exam [that was dreaded/had for weeks/months been dreaded by the students] had finally arrived, causing much anxiety.


The (escaped, escaping) refugees managed to reach safety before they had been missed.

'escaping' describes the refugees at the time they were making their escape, ie. when the escape was still in progress.

Let me paraphrase it, taking a few liberties with the "facts" to illustrate the language.

The refugees that had escaped and had reached the safety of Switzerland managed to reach safety before they had been missed.

Now the focus has shifted to after the fact of the escape. The escaping part is finished. The focus has shifted to a successful escape.

I'll venture, with not complete assurance, that those people, after the successful completion of the escape, would not be referred to as "escaped" refugees because to use the 'ed' form would confer on them, semantically speaking, that this was now their general condition, a state they had attained.

In English, we often use the pre-position [NOT preposition], ie. the position in front of the noun to describe a general condition, an habitual condition.

For example: If we want to refer to a man running across a park, we wouldn't say,

Do you see that running man over there as that would connote that that was the man's usual/habitual/always condition.

When we don't want to give that feeling/nuance, we use a relative clause -->

Do you see the man that's/who's running over there

So too with the refugees.

The refugees who/that escaped [country A] are safe in [country B].

In this case, another form, the "escapees" might be used to refer to their after the fact status.

Those sentences are really confusing me.

What state were you in at the time you first opened this thread, JS.

Those sentences are really confusing me. --> I am really [confusing/confused].

Thank you for helping me as always I really appreciate it, JTT.

Confusing JS means that JS is confusing other people.
Confused JS means that JS is the one who is confused.

Am I right? I dont know how to explain it though...

Dreading exam means that the exam is dreading people.

And then, dreaded exam means that the exam is dreaded... but the exam has no feeling. It is not alive..

Can I say "Suprised exam"?

Thank you.