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I am not sure when I am supposed to use "open" vs "opened".

Isn't "opened" the past participle form? Therefore should I talk about "the opened file"? I feel "the open file" sounds more right...

MasterScrat
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3 Answers3

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"Opened files" does indeed mean "Files that have been opened" [and are assumed to be still open], but the adjective "open" does the job well, and sounds more natural to me.

David Garner
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  • There are 2 assumptions implicit in "opened" as used in the question: that they are still open and that they were opened (i.e. opened by an act of the user, files automatically opened because they were open in a previous session may or may not be included). So "all opened files are added to the list of recent files" is good (referring to the act of opening) but "all open files will be saved". – Chris H Mar 19 '15 at 11:43
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This depends on the context of your writing, if your writing about the past tense I would use 'all opened files'. For the present tesne I would use 'all open files' since the open files (to me) makes out that the files are there infront of you.

working on from this;

I have opened all the files (Past) I have the files open (Present)

JWDD
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    I'd say that even if you're talking about the past, "all open files" means "all files that are open at that moment" – David Garner Mar 19 '15 at 10:22
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English is context dependent when it comes to choice of words.

A few senses-

  • Bring all open files**: "open" could mean files that are not sealed, unfolded or tied. E.g. an open book

  • Bring all opened files: e.g. the formerly classified files.

(TFD)

Manish
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