A funny old business tests you on the order of adjectives.
In English, if you apply a number of different adjectives in front of a noun (and they always do go in front, in English ~ not afterwards, as in several other languages ... ), there is a definite order of 'categories' in which these adjectives are expected to go. Sometimes even native speakers become muddled, but the usual order is:
[readmore]... and then, at last, the noun itself.
Meanwhile, almost any adjective may itself be further modified by an adverb in front of it ('a seriously expensive accident') ...
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A suitably tough example to start with, but do check it against our list!
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(Opinion + size + age + material)
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(Another fairly extreme example, but it runs:
Opinion + colour + style/period ... and then the final (crucial!) specification that this tie is ~ by the standards of any other period ~ grotesquely wide (and thus, it catches and offends the eye of anyone who sees if!) |
(Opinion + age + other significant physical characteristic + country of origin + purpose)
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(Opinion + 2 physical properties + colour)
NB 'Strawberry blonde' is a compound colour description, similar in its linguistic way to 'Navy blue' or 'deep crimson'. |
(Opinion + age + colour + material [ = environmentally friendly hessian] + purpose)
You may find it helpful that the purpose of an object quite often ends in '-ing'; though not all do, and some '-ing' words may appear elsewhere in such a list (e.g. a 'hulking great Australian rugby player', where 'hulking' is more or less an adverb to increase the impression of size still further) |
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(Opinion [in two stages, explaining the reason] + origin + material + purpose/function [i.e., one principal feature of these chairs is that they are designed to stack away while not being sat on])
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(Opinion + age + 'other' + location + purpose [i.e. for growing apples, rather than some other fruit])
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The 'string orchestra' can't really be divided because this phrase defines the essential nature / purpose of the group. It may help if you put the most important detail at the back before sorting out the others in reverse order.
In this case we have: Opinion (2 details) + age (this may refer to the age of the orchestra ~ how long it's been going ~ or, probably more likely, the age of the individual players, i.e. that they are fresh out of their training and playing with particular vigour) + origin + what type of instruments/music they exist to play. |
(Physical description, beginning with size ... 'alien monster' probably goes best at the back, even though this is the origin. It probably wasn't originally created to eat human beings, so 'man-eating' might not count as 'purpose'.)
'Stonking certainly isn't an indicator of purpose: it's an informal adverb that adds a suggestion of size [cf. 'striding / stamping', which the monster probably also does). This is perhaps a rather more elusive final example but we believe Answer 1 is the most likely built-up description. The terrified child would probably not have been over-fussy about the order in which he shared these details! |