Adjectives - what you never knew you knew

From The Elements of Eloquence: How to Turn the Perfect English Phrase by Mark Forsyth (2013)

Tweeted by Matt Anderson in 2016; adapted

It's a modest book that many won't get around to reading, but Matt Anderson of the BBC did, and his tweet about it went viral.

Mark Forsyth, author of the book, suggests that, in English, adjectives should follow a specific order if more than one is used to describe a single noun. In his words, the order should be:

"...opinion, size, age, shape, colour/color, origin, material, purpose, noun."

His example is: a lovely little old rectangular green French silver whittling knife.

Of course, most mother-tongue English speakers who see this are either astounded by it or quick to try and prove it wrong.

Whatever you believe, it's true that while a big yellow shopping bag is definitely a thing, a yellow big shopping bag—or even a yellow shopping big bag—simply cannot be. Mark Forsyth uses the example of 'green great dragons', which, as he says, don't exist.

Imagine having to study something like that!

If you're a mother-tongue speaker of English, never take adjectives for granted.

If you aren't, you have my deepest sympathy.

#adjectiveorder #adjectives #MarkForsyth #ElementsofEloquence #MattAnderson #tweet