Here is a cool unwritten rule that we all use with language but I’ve only just discovered.
This is from the book The Elements of Eloquence by Mark Forsyth, but this particular passage went viral in 2016 from a tweet by Matthew Anderson.
Here’s the rule:
“Adjectives in English 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 word order in the slightest you’ll sound like a maniac.
It’s an odd thing that every English speaker uses that list, but almost none of us could write it out.
And as size comes before colour, green great dragons can’t exist.”
(A side point. It was funny writing this post and “green great” was flagged as an error in the automatic spelling and grammar check).
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