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¿Por qué tienen maíz procesado?

¿Por qué tienen maíz procesado?
Why do they have processed corn?
From Lesson 114:Regular past participles (-ado, -ido)·Spanish (Latin America)

Breakdown of ¿Por qué tienen maíz procesado?

tener
to have
por qué
why
el maíz
the corn
procesar
to process

Questions & Answers about ¿Por qué tienen maíz procesado?

How do we form the word procesado?
Procesado is the regular past participle of the verb procesar (to process). For verbs ending in -ar, you drop the -ar ending and add -ado. In this sentence, it is used as an adjective to describe the corn.
Would procesado change if they had processed fruits instead of corn?
Yes! When a past participle is used as an adjective, it must match the noun it describes in both gender and number. Since frutas (fruits) is feminine plural, it would become frutas procesadas. Here, maíz is masculine singular, so it stays procesado.
I always mix up por qué and porque. How can I remember which one this is?
Written as two words with an accent mark, ¿por qué? means "why?" and is used for questions. When written as one single word without an accent (porque), it means "because" and is used for answers.
Why don't they use an article like el before maíz?
Just like in English ("they have processed corn"), you don't need the definite article (el) when talking about an unspecified quantity of something in a general sense. If you were asking about specific corn ("Why do they have the processed corn?"), you would say el maíz procesado.

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