Guyper  +  885258 Thu, 03 Sep 09 05:46 PM "The killer left a string of pulverized corpses behind him" Hi, why would the sentence use "pulverized" instead of "pulverizable" when the 1st one is not even a proper adjective? Is it because any active past verbs can also be treated as an adjective to modify nouns? Thank you Guyper Joined on Thu, Nov 13 2008 Full Member 118 Nouns, Adjectives, Sentences

	CalifJim  +  885280 Thu, 03 Sep 09 06:04 PM Guyper “Is it because any active past verbs can also be treated as an adjective to modify nouns?” pulverized is not the past of pulverize in that context.  It is the past participle.  A past participle can be used as an adjective. Note: Infinitive - Past - Past Participle pulverize - pulverized - pulverized break - broke - broken So if we wanted to describe the corpses in terms of an adjective based on the verb break, we would not use the past (broke), but the past participle (broken), like this: The killer left a string of broken corpses behind him. The difficulty in your example is that the past and the past participle for the verb pulverize are identical. CJ CalifJim Joined on Mon, Aug 2 2004 California Veteran Member 22,465 "There are no facts, only interpretations" - Nietzsche Nouns, Adjectives, Context

	Clive  +  885331 Thu, 03 Sep 09 06:52 PM Hi, "The killer left a string of pulverized corpses behind him" why would the sentence use "pulverized" instead of "pulverizable"   pulverized - describes the corpses, ie the killer actually did this.   pulverizable - the ending -able indicates the corpses were capable of being pulverized, ie it was a possibility. This does not explicitly tell us whether the killer actually did it.   It's pretty odd to say 'pulverizable'. A more normal example is this. a painted surface   - someone has painted it. a paintable surface - you can paint it if you want to.   Best wishes, Clive Clive Joined on Thu, Oct 28 2004 Canada Veteran Member 29,679 El tango argentino es un pensamiento triste que se puede bailar (The tango argentino is a sad thought which can be danced) Enrique Santos Discépolo Adjectives, Sentences