Fascinating!

bednobs | 22:00 Tue 16th May 2023 | ChatterBank

25 Answers

following a q on university challenge yesterday, i have been looking up the order of adjectives - a grammar rule that native english speakers always follow even if they don't know it. the rule is that multiple adjectives are always ranked accordingly: opinion, size, age, shape, colour, origin, material, purpose.
so you would never say the little poor dog - only the poor little dog. Another example, you would never say the leather brown walking scruffy shoes, you would say the scruffy brown leather walking shoes.

that led me (via an article) to the rule of ablaut reduplication, which the vowels have to come in a certain order (I then A then O) so you wouldnt say zag zig or raff riff, but zig zag and riff raff.
this isnt a question, but, as i said fascinating (to me at least!)

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DTCwordfan

Good evening, AB's Susie Dent......

jourdain2

As I was told when I came top in English in my 1st year at a good Northern Grammar School, but confessed to ignorance of several 'basic' rules "The best pupils are the ones who read a lot of good English. They don't know why they do it correctly, but they do it by nature."

TheWinner

No wonder English is so hard to learn. Other countries think we are lazy at learning to speak another language, but we've had a tough time learning our own!

DTCwordfan

TheWinner - that reminds me of a language joke....

What do you call someone who speaks three languages?
Answer - Trilingual or 'trilingue' in French.

What do you call someone who speaks two languages?
Answer - Bilingual or 'bilingue' in French.

What do you call someone who speaks only one language?
Monolingual?
No -
.
.
Answer - American or English.

TheWinner

very good!

When I stayed with relatives in America, I didn't realise they didn't always understand me. The first question was usually "Hi, how long are you here for?"
Me: "A fortnight"
They don't know what a "fortnight" is. . .