I received a phishing email with the subject line "You have new important message from Internet banking". A real bank message wouldn't be so vague, but I could also tell it was a scam because of the grammar. There was no indefinite article, which there should have been, and also the order of adjectives was wrong. It would be more natural to say 'an important new message'.
There are lots of grammar sites which advise on the correct order of adjectives if you have several before a noun. This is the usual order claimed:
1 opinion or judgement (good, lovely, expensive etc)
2 size (big, small etc)
3 shape (round, square etc)
4 age (new, old, young etc)
5 colour (red, blue etc)
6 origin or nationality (French, Roman etc)
7 material (wooden, cotton etc)
A quick look at items for sale on eBay and other internet sites confirms that the order above is broadly correct. I found all these sentences:
a lovely Victorian silver locket
expensive antique wooden furniture
a thin cotton nightie
a new, purpose-built nursery
However, it's not quite as simple as that. For instance, all of these sentences sound fine to me:
a black sparkly party dress/ a sparkly black party dress
wooden French toys/ French wooden toys
an ugly big house/ a big ugly house
a smelly black and white animal/ a black and white smelly animal
The order of adjectives in these, and many other sentences, depends on what word you are emphasising. You will say or write that word first.
Also, some adjectives belong with a particular noun eg short story, French doors, new potatoes, and you will keep these as a unit regardless of what other adjectives are added eg an old German short story, aluminium French doors, floury new potatoes.
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