I’m finding more and more crazy things about this language the longer I teach it! And more exceptions to the rules than we would like to admit to...
This week I will talk a little bit about adjectives. Mostly they are very easy to find, they describe a noun and often have «a», «an» or «the» before them in text. Great, that seems very simple and easy... or maybe it isn’t...
Did you know that we have a specific order in which we use adjectives? I did, and I didn’t know, if that makes any sense? Most native speakers will tell you that we say «a lovely, little old lady» and not «an old, little lovely lady». But why, I hear you ask? Here is the reason...
We always, I really do mean ALWAYS, use adjectives in the following order in English: «opinion, size, age, shape, colour, origin, material, purpose + Noun».
Let’s look at an example:
I have a lovely, little, old, rectangular, grey, Swiss, aluminum, carving knife.
I have an opinion, size, age, shape, colour, origin, material, purpose + Noun.
It is a strange thing, every English speaker uses it and will tell you that you sound crazy if you don’t use it correctly but almost none of us will be able to write out the rule for you...
We will all tell you that green, great dragons do not exist... or do they?
Happy speaking, dear readers! Until next time!
Оставьте заявку и мы подберём удобное расписание для вашего обучения