Interested describes the person who feels interest, interesting describes whatever causes it. I'm interested in history means history appeals to you; History is interesting describes history itself. If you say I'm interesting, you're calling yourself an interesting person, in other words praising yourself.
interested or interesting — can you pick the right one?
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person + be interested in + noun/-ing; be interested to hear/know; something + be interesting; an interesting + noun
- My brother is interested in old cars and spends every weekend in the garage.
- The lecture was so interesting that nobody checked their phones.
- Are you interested in joining our running club on Saturday mornings?
What changed
First versionI am interesting in learning Spanish.
RevisionI am interested in learning Spanish.
The two words share a root and differ only in the ending, so it's easy to pick one at random. You're the one feeling the interest, so you need interested. The preposition in stays: interested in learning.
Interested in describes a lasting interest in a subject or activity: She's interested in design. Interested to plus a verb is about wanting to find something out right now: I'd be interested to hear what the doctor says. The same principle works for bored and boring: I'm bored means you feel bored, I'm boring means you're a bore.
Your turn
I didn't finish the book because it wasn't very ___.
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interesting — The sentence is about the book: it does or doesn't spark interest, so interesting. Interested describes a person who feels interest, and a book feels nothing.
Describe an activity that has attracted you for a long time. Say when your interest began and use interested in.
I've been interested in photography since I was fifteen, when my uncle gave me his old camera.
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