Prince Charming

[Iris]

I love expressions such as Prince Charming and Consul General that have crystallized in the "wrong order". Can you please give me other examples?

[gatitoverde]

Knights Templar. Accounts payable. Love unrequited. Paradise Lost. God Almighty. Plus there are a string of regular instances when you reverse word order for semantic or rhetorical effect, like things said and done (in earnest), steps taken (to prevent or ensure whatever), etc.

[Iris]

Funny! I've always heard unrequited love.

[Tomisimo]

Off the top of my head: attorney general, person concerned, people responsible, amount due, damage caused.

There are a few adjectives that can go before or after the noun, for example: infected, stolen and remaining.

the stolen goods - the goods stolen
the infected area - the area infected
the remaining money - the money remaining

When using these adjectives after the noun (the money remaining), it's really a shortened way of saying the money that is/was remaining. In this case, some people call remaining a predicate adjective. If you remove the relative clause, and are left with the money remaining, it is called (by some grammarians) a participle adjective or participial adjective. They are called that because they are participles (present or past participles).

[gatitoverde]

Originally Posted by Iris

Funny! I've always heard unrequited love.

I was thinking about that one on the way to work, and I thought about yanking it from my list. I've heard so many adjectives on either side of love, I get them confused. I've never been taught the participle thing, but I was thinking about it earlier, and it occured to me that all the common cases I could come up with (care for alliteration?) were such.

[poli]

Yes, unrequited love is the way to say it, but you should remember though that language is very flexible. As you become familiar with English you realize that you can switch words around. I suppose to sound emphatic you can say,"If this isn't love unrequited, what is?" Switching adjectives around is tricky,but by doing it, the slightly dramatic sound of it may draw the listener's attention. It can also sound poetic: "This is a love devine." for example.

Poli