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A project team there are a few tasks. The team manager asks for the status of one from them. What's the right answer? The task isn't processed/handled. The task hasn't been processed/handled. Which verb would we use in this case?

user106369
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1 Answers1

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It's the difference between thinking of "processed" as one possible status which the task constantly possesses, or thinking of "processed" as a thing which was done and is now over and in the past.

I think it's one of those cases in 21st century English where English speakers take a word that is one grammatical type, and stretch it a bit to make it another. "process" is a verb, and "processed" is the past tense of the verb, but "processed" can also be used as an adjective meaning "something which has been processed".

So both sentences are valid.

swbarnes2
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    English has been using past participles as adjectives since Shakespeare (and probably long before him), and it's not stretching English grammar. – Peter Shor Dec 20 '19 at 17:49