Kottke points out, The adjective word order we all follow without realizing it
From Mark Forsyth's The Elements of Eloquence, a reminder of the rules of adjective order that fluent English speakers follow without quite knowing why.
...adjectives in English 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 word order in the slightest you'll sound like a maniac. It's an odd thing that every English speaker uses that list, but almost none of us could write it out.
Did anyone learn this in school? I sure didn't. How do we all know then?
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