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LostInParadise's avatar

Is there a word order for different types of adjectives (see details)?

Asked by LostInParadise (32182points) September 11th, 2016

I caught the tail end of a discussion on the radio about the order of adjectives when several are used to describe the same thing. The person said that this order is one of the things that make English difficult to learn.

I could not find the radio piece online, but I found this site This is something I never thought of before, but it seems to generally hold, although I think there may be some variation. There may be times when you want to say old small house instead of small old house.

Is there a similar restriction in other languages?

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5 Answers

Mimishu1995's avatar

As far as I know English is the only language with that kind of bizarre order. And as a non-native English speaker I’m quite comfortable with the order, maybe because it was what they brainwashed taught me in class and I’m so used to it.

But then again a non-native speaker is less flexible than the natives.

Love_my_doggie's avatar

Yes, the word order is quite precise. The ordering is so ingrained in any native English speaker, that person doesn’t really think about it. Consider “the lovely, big, old, red, brick house,” as compared to “the brick, old, red, big, lovely house.”

Unless the speaker wants to emphasize any one of the adjectives, the order is – opinion/observation (lovely), size (big), age (old), color (red), and material (brick). Native English speakers aren’t flexible about this at all; the pattern is deeply embedded.

Sneki95's avatar

English pays a lot of attention on word order. But it is not the same in other languages. Serbian is extremely flexible: you can order words however you want and still get a sentence. As far as I know Spanish is not very interested in order either.

Dutchess_III's avatar

To me an “old small house,” is an old house that is small.
A “small old house,” tells me it’s small, but not necessarily old. “She was a little ol’ thing.”

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