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Diamondrg Posted 19 years ago
Grammar

the order of adjectives

0the order of adjectives in most grammars:02br
02br
00determiner + opinion + size + age + shape + color + origin + material + purpose + NOUN02br
02br
00What I want to ask our native speakers is whether or not the order comes out naturally as they speak. Or is it something they have to learn afterwards like us, non-natives?0-
  

Top answer

0We learn it subliminally, as we learn the language. But we don't always get it 'right'-- especially on the page, revision is sometimes needed to compose a 'natural' flow... 0-

— Mister Micawber

  • 0We learn it subliminally, as we learn the language.
  • But we don't always get it 'right'-- especially on the page, revision is sometimes needed to compose a 'natural' flow...
  • 0-
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5 Answers
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0We learn it subliminally, as we learn the language. But we don't always get it 'right'-- especially on the page, revision is sometimes needed to compose a 'natural' flow... which does not always follow precisely the order given in Adjective Order charts.0-
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00whether or not the order comes out naturally as they speak.12blockquote
10Yes, it does. But in ordinary conversation there is hardly ever a case where more than two adjectives occur together, so it's more a matter of having an instinct for how pairs of adjectives go together in those rare instances where we need them. Mostly we just
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01cite10CalifJim12cite10 That is, the rule for what is grammatical is designed so that it matches what native speakers do naturally by instinct.12br
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10And those kind of rules actually have a lot of exceptions, since they are not even real rules. So we should be careful... I knew of that "rule" (it's i
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00I thought it would just have wasted space on my brain hard drive.12blockquote
10Quite true. What I do is just remember the cases where it's very different from how it is in my own language. For example, when I learned French I had to remember that in French it's 01i00the three first men in line02i00, not as in En
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