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I am currently learning basic grammar using the Tae Kim's guide to japanese. In one of his examples he roughly translates this sentence:
こんなのを本当に食べる？
as "Do you think [he/she] will really eat this type of thing?"
My question is, how does the possessive の particle make this sentence different from for example:
こんなを本当に食べる？
の here is not a possessive の, it's a nominalizer, a formal noun. こんな is adjectival and cannot by itself constitute a noun phrase.
In other words, こんな means "this type of", こんなの means "this type of thing".
