a grammer observation

[Stella_Omega]

From The Grammar Devotional by Mignon Fogarty:

Most native English speakers intuitively put adjectives in the proper order in sentences without giving it much thought. In fact, many of you will probably be surprised to learn that there is a quasi-official proper order. Surprise! . . .

Adjectives should go in the following order, with opinion first and purpose last:

Opinion (ridiculous, crazy, beautiful)
Size (big, small)
Age (old, young)
Shape (round, square)
Color (yellow, blue)
Origin (American, British)
Material (polyester, Styrofoam)
Purpose (swimming, as in swimming pool; shooting, as in shooting range)

For example . . .

Grammar Girl wanted to swim in the beautiful, blue swimming pool.

I'm going through my writing, and it's amazing how often I've followed this sequence... How about you?

 

[PennLady]

I'm sure I do that all the time. Just seems the natural way to do things.

 

[LettersFromTatyana]

Hmmm, doesn't BBW stand for big, beautiful woman? That was the first thing that popped into mind, and according to this, it's incorrect.

I have no idea if my own writing follows this, so I'm not sure if I should thank you or curse you for giving me something else to obsess over when I edit.

 

[Boxlicker101]

Hmmm, doesn't BBW stand for big, beautiful woman? That was the first thing that popped into mind, and according to this, it's incorrect.

I have no idea if my own writing follows this, so I'm not sure if I should thank you or curse you for giving me something else to obsess over when I edit.

If I call somebody a BBW, I want to emphasize the "beautiful" so I write that just before the modefied adjective.

As for the purpose, that makes sense, since that is the most important part of the string of adjectives. I would never say ..swimming in the swimming blue beautiful pool. I actually think of phrases such as "swimming pool, delivery truck, bowling alley" etc. as being compound nouns rather than modified nouns.

Generally speaking, I think I put the shorter adjective first, followed by the longer one. I would rarely use more than two adjectives together, except when I considered the third one to be part of the compound noun.

 

[Karenas]

Putting adjectives in the wrong order is something that often marks a non-native speaker. And it's always hard to explain why.
Thanks for this--now there's an explanation!

 

[Stella_Omega]

. I actually think of phrases such as "swimming pool, delivery truck, bowling alley" etc. as being compound nouns rather than modified nouns.

I do too!

 

[BONNIEBREA]

Hmmm, doesn't BBW stand for big, beautiful woman? That was the first thing that popped into mind, and according to this, it's incorrect.

I have no idea if my own writing follows this, so I'm not sure if I should thank you or curse you for giving me something else to obsess over when I edit.

Maybe whoever invented the expression BBW was thinking Beautiful Big Woman, and then a bunch of unlettered yahoos got hold of the expression and corrupted it.

 

[sun_sea_sky]

Let's take this theory out for a spin ...

Jenny was wearing a silk red small lovely top.
...
Jenny was wearing a lovely small red silk top.

Bill was in his polyester Italian black over-large ridiculous suit.
...
Bill was in his ridiculous over-large black Italian polyester suit.

Yep, the second way seems more natural than the first.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Maybe whoever invented the expression BBW was thinking Beautiful Big Woman, and then a bunch of unlettered yahoos got hold of the expression and corrupted it.

Or, "beautiful women" is a compound noun, and there is only the one adjective-- "big."

 

[mynameisben]

Just be sure not to impress your literary peers by incorporating all 50 shades of gray in the same sentence, or you'll wind up sounding like a silly, little, old, mis-shapen green, martian, paperback hack.

 

[Boxlicker101]

Just be sure not to impress your literary peers by incorporating all 50 shades of gray in the same sentence, or you'll wind up sounding like a silly, little, old, mis-shapen green, martian, paperback hack.

Especially if you don't capitalize "Martian."

 

[TheeGoatPig]

So no one else is disturbed by the spelling mistake in the topic title?

 

[Bramblethorn]

So no one else is disturbed by the spelling mistake in the topic title?

I noticed it, but I've been doing some really painful editing work lately and I expect it'll be a few weeks yet before I'm in the mood for recreational nitpicking ;-)

 

[PennLady]

So no one else is disturbed by the spelling mistake in the topic title?

I did and figured it was a joke. But perhaps I was wrong.

 

[TxRad]

"Recreational nitpicking."

I like the sound of that. Much better that grammar Nazi or grammar police.

 

[elfin_odalisque]

Or, "beautiful women" is a compound noun, and there is only the one adjective-- "big."

I have always thought BBW was 'Beautiful Big Woman' so this is pause for thought for me. In fairy stories one reads that the witch was an 'ugly old woman' and surely you can't write 'a petite pretty woman' .

Probably out of my depth, but surely you only get a compound noun in the plural, like the Beautiful People?

 

[LettersFromTatyana]

nevermind. had a brain dead sort of moment.

 

[Handley_Page]

It strikes me that such descriptions may be slightly different when applying to people.
Big, beautiful woman says one thing;
Beautify big woman says another thing all together.

It depends upon which bit has the (hidden) stress.

Taking this example:

Jenny was wearing a silk red small lovely top.
Jenny was wearing a lovely small red silk top.

Depending upon which is the stressed (important) bit, it could also be:

Jenny was wearing a lovely red silk small top.
ie., the fact that it was lovely red silk is more important than the fact that it's small.

Or how about a small "silky red" top ?;
which might have impact upon the size of Jenny, or how much of her body she wanted to show off.

Of course, this view might be controlled by wherever you learned English.
In my case, the UK, so it might not be the same thing at all!

 

[Boxlicker101]

And sometimes a string of adjectives can also include an adverb:

She had long dark brown hair. (I omitted the commas on purpose.) Either dark and brown form a compound adj. or "dark" is an adverb modifying brown.

A compound noun can be either singular or plural. Bowling alley or milk cartons. I believe if the noun is meaningless or confusing without the preceding adj., the combination is a compound noun. "I opened the fridge and took out the new carton..." doesn't mean anything but, "I opened thr fridge and took out the new milk carton..." is informative.

 

[Stella_Omega]

So no one else is disturbed by the spelling mistake in the topic title?

VERY.

I misspell that word ALL the time. And lit doesn't allow editing of topic titles.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I have always thought BBW was 'Beautiful Big Woman' so this is pause for thought for me. In fairy stories one reads that the witch was an 'ugly old woman' and surely you can't write 'a petite pretty woman' .

Probably out of my depth, but surely you only get a compound noun in the plural, like the Beautiful People?

Actually its BEHEMOTH BOVINE WATERBUFFALO

 

[TxRad]

Taking a step over the troll.

VERY.

I misspell that word ALL the time. And lit doesn't allow editing of topic titles.

With your "Arh, Matey," pirate background I'm surprised you misspell it that often.

Me on the other hand with my Texas slur or "Eeer" in this case i could see it as easy to misspell.

 

[slut_hijacker]

VERY.

I misspell that word ALL the time. And lit doesn't allow editing of topic titles.

The error could've passed for a joke, but good on ya for taking the higher road.

 

[Boxlicker101]

Taking a step over the troll.



With your "Arh, Matey," pirate background I'm surprised you misspell it that often.

Me on the other hand with my Texas slur or "Eeer" in this case i could see it as easy to misspell.

It's one of those words you have to sort of memorize, like scissors and colonel.

 

[Stella_Omega]

The error could've passed for a joke, but good on ya for taking the higher road.

I'm obsessive about accuracy, as you will discover. Hell, I'll even edit a post days later, just to replace a missing apostrophe