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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[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

[Blue3022000]

Hello

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

Thanks a lot!

[Alan]

Hi,

'Frightened children' are children who have seen/experienced something which has scared/frightened them. 'Frightening children' are children who make other people frightened.

Alan
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[Raperonzolo]

fearful...

I thought it was something like "full of fear"...

and NO! It isn't so... ohhhh sometimes I think "my God, I don't know English

and I thought I did"

and feel very SAD

[Kitosdad]

Raperonzolo, don't be sad. I've been exposed to my native language for decades, and I still don't understand most of it.

Kitos.
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Englishman living in Germany.

[Danila88]

Hello Raperonzolo!
Don't worry about that!
According to Oxford dictionary fearful means ‘full of fear; frightened, apprehensive’
Consequently you were right!
Best wishes//

[Cgk]

Hi,

isn't "fearful" and "frightened" synonymous, but "frightened" stronger than "fearful"? I chose fearful because frightened seemed to strong of a word to me. Whenever I hear somebody say "fearful children" they say it in situations like going to the dentist, etc. To me, "fearful" is along the line with "suffering an anxiety"; "frightened" seems more like a shock reaction, like "scared" or "terrified". This is the first time I see "fearful" being used as a synonym for "terrible", but live and learn ...

[Alan]

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Hi,

'Fearful' is an adjective that's gone downhill and has about the same value now as 'terrible' and 'awful'. These two words originally meant 'full of terror' and 'full of awe'. In some 19th century hymns there is use of the expression 'God's awful face', which meant the face of God was such that it filled you with a deep sense of fear and respect. Today you can quite happily say: You look awful this morning. What did you get up to last night?

We're on safer ground with 'frightened' that describes 'feeling afraid.

Alan
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[Cgk]

Is it like this in all of the English speaking countries, or is it a regional thing?