Orderly

Thinking about that last post reminded me of something I only heard of for the first time a few weeks ago – the rules about the order of adjectives.

From The Elements of Eloquence, by Mark Forsyth

So weird that there would be this rule that we’re all following that most of us don’t even know exists! Mind you, you could say that about a lot of the rules of English and it’s grammar, it not being a popular subject to teach in schools for a couple of generations now, it seems to me. Most of my grammar I only know from learning foreign languages. 

So, how did I do in my earlier post? “Sleazy, white, middle aged male authors” – opinion, colour, age, and what is gender then? My gut feeling is it would come near the noun – along with origin-material-purpose. So, I should probably have said “Sleazy, middle aged, white, male authors” which actually does sound better, now I mention it. Maybe I should have just stuck with “stale, pale, male”?

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