Tuesday 29 December 2009

Adjective Word Order

Have you ever wondered why we say "a tall basketball player" and not "a basketball tall player", or "an expensive gold watch" instead of "a gold expensive watch"?
The order of the adjectives is important in English and it is not an easy topic for Spanish students.
As a general rule we know that most adjectives are used in front of the noun (not after it as in Spanish), and we also know that the basic order of the adjectives is this: qualitative adjectives, colours and classifying adjectives.
If you want to learn a bit more let me tell you that when I was a boy I had a mnemonic sentence which helped me to remember the order of the adjectives: "Very Soon a Slow Old Train Should Come From My Province". Have a look at these notes I have prepared for you and you'll see what I mean.
When you are ready have a go at these exercises.