Ordering adjectives

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How do we order our adjectives when speaking English?

Remarkably, when we describe a noun, we almost always unconsciously arrange adjectives in this order: opinion, size, age, shape, colour, origin, material, and purpose.

If you try mixing them up in a different order, it just doesn’t sound right. Compare, for example, a super little Italian coffee to an Italian little super coffee.

Or, as Mark Forsyth points out in The Elements of Eloquence: How to turn the perfect English phrase , you can have a great green dragon, but not a green great one.

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Published 19 Oct 2019

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The Olympic Flag, which consists of five interlocking coloured rings, was created by Frenchman Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic games, and unveiled in 1914. Coubertin said that the five rings represent the five parts of the world embracing "Olympism" and competing against each other: Africa, The Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania. The interlacing of the rings represents the unity and coming together of athletes from all parts of the world. Coubertin did not associate individual rings with individual continents. The six colours of blue, dark yellow, black, green, red and white—the field on which the rings are set—"reproduce the colours of every country", and at least one is found on every national flag (I believe that’s still true). I was thinking of including a sketch of each of the Olympic sports, but depending on how you count them, there are 32 sports and over 300 events. You can learn more than you ever wanted to know about the history of the Olympic Flag in The Story of the Rings by Karl Lennartz (pdf). The Olympic flag and various other Olympic Properties (like the rings, torch and motto) are © IOC. Also see: The Union Jack Great Britain, the British Isles, the United Kingdom - eh?…The Olympic Flag, which consists of five interlocking coloured rings, was created by Frenchman Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic games, and unveiled in 1914. Coubertin said that the five rings represent the five parts of the world embracing "Olympism" and competing against each other: Africa, The Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania. The interlacing of the rings represents the unity and coming together of athletes from all parts of the world. Coubertin did not associate individual rings with individual continents. The six colours of blue, dark yellow, black, green, red and white—the field on which the rings are set—"reproduce the colours of every country", and at least one is found on every national flag (I believe that’s still true). I was thinking of including a sketch of each of the Olympic sports, but depending on how you count them, there are 32 sports and over 300 events. You can learn more than you ever wanted to know about the history of the Olympic Flag in The Story of the Rings by Karl Lennartz (pdf). The Olympic flag and various other Olympic Properties (like the rings, torch and motto) are © IOC. Also see: The Union Jack Great Britain, the British Isles, the United Kingdom - eh?

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