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Old June 01, 2009, 02:20 PM
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Join Date: May 2009
Location: en el norte de Inglaterra
Posts: 526
Native Language: British English
brute is on a distinguished road
Order of adjectives

In English there is a "rule" of syntax that few native English speakers have ever been taught. Foreign students, however, need to learn it.
This concerns the order of adjectives attached to a single noun in a sentence.
Native English speakers seem to follow the rule intuitively.
One can classify adjectives into a sequence of 7 types :
1 Personal opinion: beautiful, interesting
2 Size: big, small
3 Age: young, old
4 Shape: round, square
5 Colour: red, yellow
6 Nationality: Spanish, English
7 Material: plastic, glass
8 Purpose: hearing (aid)

So, one would say:
An interesting 1 little 2
old 3
black 5
American 6
woman.

Any other order sounds "un-English"
Do Spanish adjectives follow a similar sequence?
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