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Old March 15, 2017, 04:05 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by poli View Post
I think the noun is implied. The noun being wood or some other combustible. The original idea is pastillas de madera encendida (pardon me if charcoal is composed of something other than charred wood)
Pastillas de encendido are firelighters, not charcoal. The key ingredient is short-chain hydrocarbons.

Quote:
Originally Posted by poli View Post
Una jarra de encurtidos en lugar de una jarra de pepinos encurtidos. Here, we have an example that corresponds to English. A jar of pickled cucumbers is often called a jar of pickles, at least in the USA. Instead of
jar of pickleds as used in Spanish, English converts the past participle into the noun pickles. Tostados and toasts (we would never used toasteds) is another example. Both tostados and toasts imply toasted breads/panes tostados.
Interesting: I wouldn't use *toasts either unless talking about speeches made with a glass in hand. For me toast (bread) is uncountable.

Quote:
Originally Posted by poli View Post
In Spanish, often the past participle is an adjective that becomes a noun when the noun is implied. I can't think of a case where this occurs in English.

I don't know if I'm missing the point here, but the use of the past participle as a noun when the noun is implied is commonplace in Spanish. I remember a classic movie called "Los Olvidados" . The title was translated "The Forgotten Ones."
I just remembered that there are cases in English where the Spanish practice is used. There's a famous play called "A Moon for the Misbegotten". Other examples: the disenfranchised, the unemployed, the uneducated. It's much less commonly used in English, but it exists.
The oppressed was the first example I thought of. Interesting that all our examples so far are negative.

I think it is missing the point, though. The original point, as I understood it, wasn't about adjectives which are utcs but about using a past participle (encendido) to describe a future intention (tablets of have-been-set-on-fire vs tablets of will-set-on-fire).
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