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Here's another good example: what is the correct way to order multiple adjectives in English? If you are a native speaker, you probably don't have any idea, you
by cecilpl2 7y ago
Here's another good example: what is the correct way to order multiple adjectives in English? If you are a native speaker, you probably don't have any idea, you just know that you say "an old big brown cardboard fridge box", rather than "a cardboard brown fridge old big box". The order is very specific and any deviation is obviously incorrect. Try it for yourself!
But any ESL student can tell you the order is quantity, opinion, size, age, shape, color, origin, material, purpose. We'd had to reverse-engineer the rules, and then teach it to newcomers.
- tigerlily 7y agoThen it must be "big old brown cardboard fridge box".
- __blockcipher__ 7y agoIncidentally that’s exactly how I would have worded the sentence as a native speaker. But only because “big ol’” is a common phrase by itself
- funnybeam 7y agoTo me, also a native speaker (UK if it makes a difference), “big old” implies size alone(fairly large) rather than age, while “old big” would definitely mean old and large
- LorenPechtel 7y agoAs a native speaker I had no idea there was a proper order.
- Mattasher 7y agoI often use this as an example of an "unknown known" for most English speakers. We know how to order these things, but we don't know about the specific rules that govern their ordering and that we have (implicitly) mastered that.