afraid / scared / frightened There are differences in use and I shall try to illustrate these. But all these adjectives express roughly the same degree of worry or fear and can therefore be used interchangeably to some extent. Frightened suggests more sudden fear: All small children are afraid of / scared of / frightened of school bullies. Don’t be scared / afraid / frightened. I’m not going to hurt you. All three can be followed by of + -ing clause. Frightened cannot always be followed by of + pronoun or noun: He’s afraid of / scared of / frightened of flying in small planes. He’s a strict teacher. Everyone seems to be afraid of / scared of him. All three can be followed by the to + infinitive pattern: She seemed too scared to swim where there were such big waves. After such an experience she’s afraid to go anywhere near the sea. I was too frightened to jump in at the deep end of the pool. We can be scared by or frightened by something. We cannot use afraid in this way: She was scared by the hooting of the owl. They were frightened / terrified by the gunfire and the breaking of glass. Note that terrified expresses a stronger degree of fear. She’s terrified of / by large dogs and won’t go near them. afraid / scared / frightened - position in clause Note that afraid is one of those adjectives that cannot normally be used before a noun, but instead is used after a verb. Scared and frightened can be used in both positions: He seemed afraid. He appeared frightened. He was, without doubt, a frightened man.

I’m afraid I / we / he / etc I’m afraid… is also used in another way, meaning: I regret that I have to tell you that…. It is used to introduce bad news in a gentle or polite way: I’m afraid there’s been an accident at the crossroads. Your son’s been knocked over on his bike. I’m afraid we shan’t be able to come on the skiing trip with you. John’s got to work. He’s done very little work, I’m afraid. He’ll have to repeat the course. I’m afraid so. / I’m afraid not. We can use these forms as short answers to confirm bad news: Will I really have to repeat the course next year? ~ I’m afraid so. Can’t you really come on the skiing trip with us? ~ I’m afraid not. frightened / frightening As a general rule, adjectives ending in -ed are used to describe how people feel. Adjectives ending in -ing describe the things or situations that give rise to these feelings. So, remember, frightened describes how you feel. Frightening describes the things that make you feel frightened: She looked very frightened when I told her she would lose her job. It was one of the most frightening films I had ever seen. It’s frightening to think that they are capable of producing nuclear weapons. terrified / terrifying Similarly, terrified describes you feel. Terrifying describes the things that make you feel terrified. Terrified and terrifying express a higher degree of anxiety or worry than frightened and frightening: I was so much in debt. I was terrified I would lose my job when the restructuring was announced. It was a terrifying experience. I doubt he will ever recover from it. scared / scary Scary is the adjective relating to things or situations; scared the adjective relating to how people feel. Scary and frightening express similar levels of fear or worry: Being alone in a cave with five thousand bats was scary. I felt scared when night fell and I was nowhere near human habitation.

The two adjectives you are asking about are 'afraid' and 'scared'. I'm afraid of spiders. I'm scared of spiders. There is no difference in meaning, but there are some differences in use. Scared seems a more 'childish' word, although it means the same thing. 'Scared' is the past participle of the verb 'scare' so you can say eg 'That scares me' or 'That didn't scare her'. Scared occurs in certain set phrases/collocations eg scared to death, scared stiff, scared out of my wits. 'Frightened' is another word with the same meaning and grammar as 'scared', but it is less childish-sounding. It is also the only one of the three which it is normal to put before the noun (eg a frightened mouse). Frightened and scared have adjective forms : frightening and scary. Afraid doesn't have an adjective form. NB : 'afraid' can also mean sorry eg 'I'm afraid I can't help you'. You can't use the other words in this way.

These two words can have roughly the same meaning and, depending on the context, can be used interchangeably. "I'm scared/afraid of the dark" "He's scared/afraid of heights." "People are scared/afraid to go out alone at night." These all sound perfectly natural to me. However, we can use "scared" as a verb (past tense) but we cannot use afraid in the same way. For example, we can say "I was scared by the ghost", but we cannot say "I was afraid by the ghost". Afraid can also be used for expressing apology or regret. 'I'm afraid I bumped your car when I was trying to park.' The following article goes into the usage of these two words in detail and has a lot of good example sentences. http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/learnit/learnitv335.shtml

"Afraid" is an adjective. "Scared" is a past participle that is used as an adjective. They mean the same thing. 'I am afraid" and "I am scared" mean exactly the same thing. "To scare" is a verb. "I scare the cat." "Scare" is also a noun. "You gave me a scare"