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. And as size comes before colour, green great dragons can't exist.
@Jezibaba I probably sound like a maniac 200% of the time 😂
@Blue_Skyesr_here never having heard you verbalize anything I wouldn't know if you sound like a maniac but your typing skills show no signs of being maniacal. LOL
@Jezibaba Haha! I was just thinking that this subject of the order of adjectives used to be such a headache for me when doing translations, it's not that intuitive when English is not your mother tongue and the other language has very different rules. And when talking, I suppose I make mistakes here and there, and when still learning probably sounded crazy 😜!
@Blue_Skyesr_here @Jezibaba As someone who spent years teaching ESL, it’s not as dire as they’re making it sound here. Confusing? Maybe. Maniacal? No. Especially when it’s clear that English is not the speaker’s mother tongue. Also, such a speaker would almost certainly never use that many adjectives in a sentence. Add to that, the order of adjectives is not always as intuitive as implied here, not even to those of us with an English degree, let alone the average native speaker.
@Apocryphiliac Even pronunciation doesn't follow rules and confuses beginners a lot 😅@Jezibaba
@Apocryphiliac you hit it with that many adjectives. And by the way I like maniacs
@Jezibaba Which is, ofc why we get along so well! 🤪 @Blue_Skyesr_here
@Apocryphiliac just one of the reasons. 😉
@Jezibaba Speaking of friends, where's @Ishinara (spell?) ? I have not seen him in a while 😕 @Apocryphiliac
@Blue_Skyesr_here I do not know. I wish him well wherever he may be.
@Jezibaba I do too, I just realized his account seems to be gone...
@Apocryphiliac I've taught languages and grammar is definitely confusing 🫣🤯, but I find English easier than Romance languages. We would find almost that many adjectives in articles or science papers and how to put them in Spanish (or Portuguese, Chinese ) lead often to debate 🤣. I know maniacal is just an exaggeration and funny, but the translation might end up meaning something different on the serious side. Interpreting is even harder, can't tell you how stressful it is! 😰 @Jezibaba
@Blue_Skyesr_here That is fascinating. I once wondered if, with a partner, I might be able to translate classic lit from Korean to English, which until recently seemed to almost never be done. It probably would have been the end of me. @Jezibaba
@Blue_Skyesr_here @Jezibaba Or, TLDR: English is confusing at best and its rules are often bordering on nonsensical.