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Arrange Your Adjectives!

Benjamin Grimm Sep 09 2016 12:47 PM

I thought this was interesting: Adjectives, writes the author, professional stickler Mark Forsyth, “absolutely have to be in this order: opinion-size-age-shape-colour-origin-material-purpose Noun. So you can have a lovely little old rectangular green French silver whittling knife. But if you mess with that order in the slightest you’ll sound like a maniac.” I think "sound like a maniac" is quite an exaggeration. If I heard someone say, "I have a lovely little old green rectangular French silver whittling knife" I doubt that I'd scream "Watch out for the maniac!" and run for my life. But the article is interesting nonetheless. I never realized that adjective order is a thing, but a "big old yellow house" does sound a lot more correct than "a yellow old big house". The full article: How non-English speakers are taught this crazy English grammar rule you know but have never heard of

MFS62 Sep 09 2016 01:03 PM Re: Arrange Your Adjectives!

I haven't clicked on the link yet. But the fact that he spells the word "colour" leads me to believe he's British. They always were very precise with their language. The rule makes sense. OE: I clicked on it, and got pop-ups and messages that made it unreadable. Later

Frayed Knot Sep 09 2016 01:24 PM Re: Arrange Your Adjectives!

I read a couple of grammar type books over the last few years, this one [fimg=220:3bctlv8c]http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wPfTghzlEfM/UcCWHKOEvrI/AAAAAAACE_8/GxC-k-v4ie8/s1600/bw.jpg[/fimg:3bctlv8c] and also this one [fimg=190:3bctlv8c]http://bibliotikus.net/i/p/1378839039.jpg[/fimg:3bctlv8c] but don't recall either one talking about adjective order. Nor do I recall thinking or hearing about the subject all that much although certainly [u:3bctlv8c]big, red dog[/u:3bctlv8c] sounds better than [u:3bctlv8c]red, big dog[/u:3bctlv8c]. Whether that less awkward flow is simply custom through repetition or something that's mandatory is hard to say.

Ceetar Sep 09 2016 01:31 PM Re: Arrange Your Adjectives!

i think it's custom through repetition and it just 'sounds right' Which is probably why we don't learn it, it's just something you sorta pick up through exposure and repetition when you learn English for years before you even think about writing it. I do find it pretty fascinating that there's enough logic to it to create a rule though. And because English is stupid I bet there's quite a few things we say in a different order just because.

MFS62 Sep 09 2016 01:39 PM Re: Arrange Your Adjectives!

Ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put. Later

Benjamin Grimm Sep 09 2016 01:47 PM Re: Arrange Your Adjectives!

I found it interesting that native English speakers learn this instinctively but people learning English as a second language obviously wouldn't have that instinct and would have to be instructed on how to arrange their adjectives.

cooby Sep 09 2016 02:16 PM Re: Arrange Your Adjectives!

MFS62 wrote: I haven't clicked on the link yet. But the fact that he spells the word "colour" leads me to believe he's British. They always were very precise with their language. The rule makes sense. OE: I clicked on it, and got pop-ups and messages that made it unreadable. Later Thank you for the warning!

Benjamin Grimm Sep 09 2016 02:27 PM Re: Arrange Your Adjectives!

It opened fine for me. Maybe I have a better pop-up blocker?

d'Kong76 Sep 09 2016 02:30 PM Re: Arrange Your Adjectives!

It is interesting. In my next life Spanish will be my chosen language and English my second... English is whack! (he says in a room full of English majors and lawyers) "Mr. C*****, you can't end a sentence with a preposition." "I did that? I don't even know what a preposition is!" Classroom laughs, I get that look that Steve Rogers posts of Tommy Lee Jones when I razz him... high school was huge big fun.

RealityChuck Sep 09 2016 02:51 PM Re: Arrange Your Adjectives!

Frayed Knot wrote: I read a couple of grammar type books over the last few years, this one [fimg=220]http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wPfTghzlEfM/UcCWHKOEvrI/AAAAAAACE_8/GxC-k-v4ie8/s1600/bw.jpg[/fimg] and also this one [fimg=190]http://bibliotikus.net/i/p/1378839039.jpg[/fimg] but don't recall either one talking about adjective order. Nor do I recall thinking or hearing about the subject all that much although certainly big, red dog sounds better than red, big dog. Whether that less awkward flow is simply custom through repetition or something that's mandatory is hard to say. The Lynn Truss book is a horrible "guide." Not only is it useless for reference (there's no organization if you want to look up a rule), but it's utter nonsense. I picked it up and opened to a random page and saw she made one major error of fact in the first paragraph. Truss's knowledge of English is barely above the high school level, and not only are many of her "rules" nonsense, but she also breaks many of them in the course of writing the book. She's just an old fart saying "get off my lawn" and who has never studied the subject she's talking about but just complains about people breaking "rules" that have been discredited for decades. If you want a guide that's far more definitive and more fun to read, see The Transitive Vampire

batmagadanleadoff Sep 09 2016 03:11 PM Re: Arrange Your Adjectives!

RealityChuck wrote: Frayed Knot wrote: I read a couple of grammar type books over the last few years, this one [fimg=220]http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wPfTghzlEfM/UcCWHKOEvrI/AAAAAAACE_8/GxC-k-v4ie8/s1600/bw.jpg[/fimg] and also this one [fimg=190]http://bibliotikus.net/i/p/1378839039.jpg[/fimg] but don't recall either one talking about adjective order. Nor do I recall thinking or hearing about the subject all that much although certainly big, red dog sounds better than red, big dog. Whether that less awkward flow is simply custom through repetition or something that's mandatory is hard to say. The Lynn Truss book is a horrible "guide." Not only is it useless for reference (there's no organization if you want to look up a rule), but it's utter nonsense. I picked it up and opened to a random page and saw she made one major error of fact in the first paragraph. Truss's knowledge of English is barely above the high school level, and not only are many of her "rules" nonsense, but she also breaks many of them in the course of writing the book. She's just an old fart saying "get off my lawn" and who has never studied the subject she's talking about but just complains about people breaking "rules" that have been discredited for decades. If you want a guide that's far more definitive and more fun to read, see The Transitive Vampire I read that Truss book a few years ago. I didn't finish it. I hit a section that confused me, and didn't feel like working through it. I can't remember if I thought it was my fault or the author's, but I do remember not liking her section on colon/semi-colon use.

d'Kong76 Sep 09 2016 03:31 PM Re: Arrange Your Adjectives!

Benjamin Grimm wrote: It opened fine for me. Maybe I have a better pop-up blocker? No pop-ups here. One really shouldn't be getting pop-ups in 2016 and if they are a more modern browser should be a top priority. Having unwanted stuff load is not a safe practice and may lead to problems down the road on your machine.

batmagadanleadoff Sep 09 2016 03:47 PM Re: Arrange Your Adjectives!

d'Kong76 wrote: Benjamin Grimm wrote: It opened fine for me. Maybe I have a better pop-up blocker? No pop-ups here. One really shouldn't be getting pop-ups in 2016 and if they are a more modern browser should be a top priority. Having unwanted stuff load is not a safe practice and may lead to problems down the road on your machine. Tell me about it. For the past four or five months, I have a lot of crap going on on my PC when I surf. I don't know if they're pop-ups, but they're these videos that insert themselves into almost every page I surf. Then there's the adchoices that I don't know how to get rid of, and I can't even believe that stuff is even legal. My browser slows to a crawl after a couple of hours. With the freezing and the hanging and the crashing and if it doesn't crash I end it anyways so I can reload it. Often that's not good enough so I have to shut everything down and re-boot the whole PC. There are moments when I swear, every single browser click takes at least 45 seconds to load. I wonder if some of this is from downloading free apps, which I promised myself I'll never do anymore which means that I have a bunch of RAR files that I have no idea how to even open without the free apps that I swore I won't download anymore but I can't even find a pay for the app on Amazon to open up RAR files. And I've got this inertia over this that I can't seem to do anything about it. What would you do?

Zvon Sep 09 2016 03:56 PM Re: Arrange Your Adjectives!

Zvon Sep 09 2016 04:03 PM Re: Arrange Your Adjectives!

batmagadanleadoff wrote: And I've got this inertia over this that I can't seem to do anything about it. What would you do? First I'd try another browser. I was using Microsoft Edge because it was bundled w/this new PC. It was HORRENDOUS in that the longer it was open, the slower it got. After an hour it was moving at a crawl. Don't know why, don't care. Switched back to Chrome and all is well.

d'Kong76 Sep 09 2016 04:17 PM Re: Arrange Your Adjectives!

Yeah Chrome and Firefox are the first step if anyone is using Explorer/Edge. As I've said in other threads, Microsoft browsing is pure evil. Evil, I tell you!