Emocionado vs. emocionante
The Spanish words emocionado and emocionante both relate to excitement and emotion, but they are used in different ways. The key difference is that one describes a person's feeling, while the other describes the quality of something that causes that feeling.
Emocionado
A2This is an adjective that describes how a person feels. It means excited, thrilled, or moved. It is a state of being, an internal emotion. As an adjective that describes a person, it must agree in gender and number with that person (e.g., un hombre emocionado, una mujer emocionada, los niños emocionados).
Estoy muy emocionado por el concierto de esta noche.
(I am very excited about the concert tonight.)
Ella estaba realmente emocionada de verte después de tanto tiempo.
(She was truly excited to see you after so much time.)
Los niños estaban emocionados al ver la nieve por primera vez.
(The children were thrilled when they saw snow for the first time.)
Mi abuelo se sintió muy emocionado durante la ceremonia.
(My grandfather felt very moved during the ceremony.)
Las ganadoras estaban visiblemente emocionadas al recibir el premio.
(The winners were visibly emotional upon receiving the award.)
Emocionante
A2This is an adjective that describes something (a thing, an event, a situation) that causes a feeling of excitement. It means exciting, thrilling, or moving. It describes the quality of the stimulus, not the person's reaction. This adjective is invariable in gender and only changes for plural (emocionante for singular, emocionantes for plural).
El final de la película fue muy emocionante.
(The end of the movie was very exciting.)
Fue una experiencia emocionante y la recordaré siempre.
(It was a thrilling experience and I will remember it forever.)
Las montañas rusas son muy emocionantes para algunas personas.
(Roller coasters are very exciting for some people.)
Leer las cartas de mis antepasados fue un momento muy emocionante.
(Reading my ancestors' letters was a very moving moment.)
El libro tiene una de las tramas más emocionantes que he leído.
(The book has one of the most exciting plots I have ever read.)
Summary
In short, use emocionado or emocionada to describe how a person feels (I am excited). Use emocionante to describe the thing or event that is causing the feeling (The movie is exciting). A simple rule to remember is: people are emocionados, while things and events are emocionantes.