Terry L Giles

Your brain knows a bunch of English grammar rules that you were never actually taught. Why does “little red ball” sound normal, but “red little ball” feels wrong? Or why is it “fun little red rubber ball” and not “rubber fun little red ball”? Most of us just instinctively know the right order — even though almost nobody was ever taught the actual rule. It turns out there’s a pretty specific (and surprisingly strict) order we follow for adjectives, and we enforce it without even realizing it’s a rule. No wonder why they say English is one of the hardest languages. Were you ever taught what order to put adjectives in? I don’t remember learning this.