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El maíz procesado era muy barato.

El maíz procesado era muy barato.
The processed corn was very cheap.
From Lesson 114:Regular past participles (-ado, -ido)·Spanish (Latin America)

Breakdown of El maíz procesado era muy barato.

ser
to be
barato
cheap
muy
very
el maíz
the corn
procesar
to process

Questions & Answers about El maíz procesado era muy barato.

Where does the word procesado come from, and why does it end in -ado?
It comes from the regular verb procesar (to process). To form the past participle of an -ar verb, you drop the -ar ending and add -ado. In this sentence, it functions as an adjective meaning "processed".
Does procesado change if the noun is plural or feminine?
Yes! When a past participle is used as an adjective, it must agree with the noun it describes in both gender and number. Because el maíz is masculine and singular, we use procesado. If we were talking about processed apples, it would be las manzanas procesadas.
Why is the verb era used here instead of fue?
Era is the imperfect tense of ser (to be). We use the imperfect here because we are describing a general, ongoing characteristic in the past (the fact that the corn used to be cheap), rather than a specific, completed event.
Why does maíz have an accent mark on the i?
The accent mark on maíz breaks the vowels into two separate syllables (ma-íz) and tells you to stress the i. Without the accent mark, those two vowels would blend together into a single syllable.

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