November 29, 2018 at 12:17 pm

Things Native English Speakers Know, But Don’t Know..

by twistedsifter

 

 

I thought this was an interesting tidbit recently shared on reddit. It purports that native English speakers subconsciously order adjectives without even realizing they’re doing it.

However for those learning English as a second language this order is often taught and explained. For those that can’t read the ‘picture of text’ above, I’ve typed it below:

 

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.

 

[via truckzebra on reddit]