Learn Spanish (Latin America): Ellos inflan la bolsa, es puro engaño. - They inflate the bag; it is pure deception.

In Latin American Spanish, placing puro (or its matching forms pura, puros, puras) directly before a noun adds emphatic exclusivity. It translates to "nothing but," "complete," or "total." Here, es puro engaño emphasizes that the situation is entirely a trick, with no truth to it at all.

Could I put the adjective after the noun and say es un engaño puro?

No, because the placement changes the meaning. When puro comes before the noun, it means "nothing but" or "absolute." If it comes after the noun, it means "pure" in a literal, physical sense (like agua pura for pure water). Saying un engaño puro sounds weirdly like a "clean, uncontaminated trick."

Why isn't there an article here, like es un puro engaño?

When puro is used to mean "nothing but [noun]," it is most common to drop the indefinite article (un or una). In this sentence, you are treating the deception as an abstract, uncountable concept ("it is pure deception") rather than a single, countable event ("it is a pure deception").

What does inflan la bolsa refer to here? Is it literal?