Helpful Adjective Order

I don’t remember where I saw this, probably on Facebook, but it was interesting—something about a young J.R.R. Tolkien being taught a valuable grammatical lesson by his mother, Mabel Tolkien.

To wit: Adjectives in English modifying a noun absolutely must abide by a certain order: 

1. Opinion
2. Size
3. Age
4. Shape
5. Color
6. Origin
7. Material
8. Purpose
9. NOUN

Example: “Cute little old rectangular green French silver whittling knife.” Mess with the word order and you sound ridiculous.

All of us English speakers use that list, but usually can’t write it out off the top of our heads.

Back to young Tolkien. When he was 7, he wrote “green great dragon.” But because size comes before color, he was incorrect. According to mother Mabel, it should have been “great green dragon.”

You know who JRR Tolkien was, don’t you? He wrote the iconic fantasy geeks, “The Hobbit,” and “Lord of the Rings,” on which the Blockbuster movies were based.

Mother knows best. Yes she does. Now go back to what you were doing before I rudely interrupted.