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I saw this in the book. enter image description here

管理人{かんりにん}: 燃{も}える ごみは 月{げつ}・水{すい}・金{きん}の 朝{あさ} 出{だ}して ください。

I remember that If we want to use a verb as an adjective, we need to change a verb into the Ta-form, but this one is the verb in a dictionary form. Why is that?

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  • Where did you learn that it needs to be in Ta-form?
    – Ringil
    Apr 28, 2019 at 16:40

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I think you shouldn't think about the past tense of the verb here, because it has a completely different meaning.

燃えたゴミ

Literally means "garbage that burned" (= burned garbage). So it cannot be used as a potential form to mean "burnable".

燃えるゴミ

Is the correct form to use. It literally means "garbage that burns" so it could be translated by "burnable".

Also, you should forget the idea that a past-tense verb is an adjective, its translation might look like it's an adjective, but it's still a verb and it should be seen as such, even though we translate it by an adjective to make the translation sound more natural.

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  • Oh, I got it. Thank you so much, sir. (＞Д＜)ゝ
    – Chayutpong Leartrattanaporn
    Apr 28, 2019 at 18:01
  • Despite the correct form being 「燃えるゴミ」, I wonder why "burnable garbage" is not 「燃えられるゴミ」.
    – jarmanso7
    Apr 28, 2019 at 23:12
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    @jarmanso7 You're thinking too much in English terms. The Japanese language was not made with English as a reference.
    – Angelos
    Apr 29, 2019 at 0:57
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    Also, @jarmanso7, in this specific context, it's more like "garbage to burn".
    – Eiríkr Útlendi
    Apr 29, 2019 at 16:25

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