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Anonymous Posted 17 years ago
Grammar
A wonderful few days - Is this grammatically wrong?
My son came back from school today and his teacher marked him down for this phrase in his essay. She said it should be "A few wonderful days", as this follows the correct rules of adjective order. As a native speaker I know you can say "A wonderful few days" but I'm not sure why. I think it has something to do with modified plural nouns. Can anyone help? Thanks.
Top answer
"a few wonderful days" is, in fact, the correct adjective order. Nevertheless, when we think of "a few days" as a single period of time which we experienced as wonderful, we reverse the order to indicate that it was a few days' period that was wonderful. It seems to me that it's more usual to give the exact number than to say "a few" or "several", however, so "wonderful few" strikes me as less usual.
- "a few wonderful days" is, in fact, the correct adjective order.
- Nevertheless, when we think of "a few days" as a single period of time which we experienced as wonderful, we reverse the order to indicate that it was a few days' period that was wonderful.
- It seems to me that it's more usual to give the exact number than to say "a few" or "several", however, so "wonderful few" strikes me as less usual.
- Compare these, where "period of" is also understood: We had a wonderful vacation in Hawaii.
- We had a wonderful ten days in Hawaii.
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1 Answers
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"a few wonderful days" is, in fact, the correct adjective order. Nevertheless, when we think of "a few days" as a single period of time which we experienced as wonderful, we reverse the order to indicate that it was a few days' period that was wonderful. It seems to me that it's more usual to give the exact number than to say "a few" or "several", however, so "wonderful few" strikes me as less
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