Frightened vs. fearful

[Rudolf]

Test No. incompl/inter-3 "If you tend to forget", question 10

Sociologists maintain that some of the films on show today have created a generation of very ......... children.

(a) frightened
(b) afraid
(c) fearful
(d) frightening

Test No. incompl/inter-3 "If you tend to forget", answer 10

Sociologists maintain that some of the films on show today have created a generation of very frightened children.

Correct answer: (a) frightened

Your answer was: incorrect
Sociologists maintain that some of the films on show today have created a generation of very fearful children.
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Why word fearful doesn't fit in here?
thank you

[Torsten]

Fearful children are terrible children, that means they make other people afraid.
In the sentence you are referring to we are talking about children who are scared themselves - they are frightened.
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Test Of English for International Communication
TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary

[Yustas]

Hi,

Could you explain the difference between "frightened children" and "afraid children" ?

Why we can't use "afraid" if this example ?

Thank you

[Alan]

Hi Yustas,

In this sentence frightened children means that they are full of fear because they have seen films that have made them like this, Afraid is not usually used attributively as you have asked in your question - in other words you can't use it before a noun as you can with frightened (frightened children). You have to use in this way: The chidren are afraid of the films. (You use it predicatively).

Alan
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English as a Second Language
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[Yustas]

Thanks Alan

Now it's clear for me