I happened upon this quote from his book that is interesting to any non-native speaker of English but probably also to any native speaker who wants to know more about their language.
Anyway, the quote is:
"Adjectives, 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."
Of course, I've looked it up elsewhere and found some more information, so "Google is my best friend" … and they gave me the following list:
Generally, the adjective order in English is:
• Quantity or number.
• Quality or opinion.
• Size.
• Age.
• Shape.
• Colour.
• Proper adjective (often nationality, other place of origin, or material)
• Purpose or qualifier.
Beginnings
• Initially
• At first
• To start with
• First of all
• Firstly
• To begin with
• In the beginning
Middles
• Secondly
• thirdly
• later
• then
• afterwards
• at this point
• meanwhile
• next
• after that
• subsequently
• later on
• during this time
Endings
• Finally
• Eventually
• In time
• In the end
• Ultimately
• Lastly
You can never stop learning a language, even your own, and I know that most readers are also interested in language, so I thought more people might be interested in this.
Apparently, the British Council disagrees but I think we all need some sort of guidance when learning a foreign language, so I say, stick to one or the other, most native speakers won't notice anyway. 😉
Interesting! Sometimes I struggle with adjectives in my writing. I think there is such a thing as too many!
ReplyDeleteOoooh, I'm glad you like it, as well. You are one of the people I think of very highly, not just, but especially in regards of the English language. I thought it was fantastic for me and other ESOLs. Thanks, Judy. Have a great day.
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