until it's pointed out to them.

In English, you can have a "big red balloon", but not a "red big balloon". You can have

a "proper purple plastic panda" but not a "plastic proper purple panda". I mean, you

can, but it sounds... off. It sounds wrong.

There is a rough rule in English that says adjectives should be ordered like this. There

are exceptions, of course -- particularly important adjectives should be placed next

to the noun -- but generally this is how it works.

General opinions are words like 'good' or 'important', that could apply to anything.

Then you have specific opinions: words like 'delicious' that can only apply to certain

categories of words. Then size, then shape: it's never a round large object, it's a large

round object.

Then the age, then the colour, then the location it came from, then what it's made of. You

can have a blue British wooden box, not a wooden blue British box. If I say that, it

implies that there is a thing called a "British box". That's one of the exceptions, by the

way: if the noun is two words, like 'rocking chair', they always go together at the end.

Now, this is more of a guideline than a rule. There's plenty of ways to subvert it. And

the instinct of many folks is to say "well, it just means you're putting the important

bits near the end". Except... you aren't. Plus, different languages have different orders:

French, for example, puts some -- but not all -- after the noun. You'd have "un grand

ballon rouge".

Now, I would love to say that I could explain adjective ordering. I wish I could tell you

why, in English, you can have that "big red balloon" but not a "red big balloon". But

I have been searching through the literature, and while there are plenty of descriptions

of how it works, there is no consensus -- and, frankly, very few theories -- about why.

But if you want to have a bit of fun with language, try playing about with the order

when you write. Sometimes it'll sound clunky, but who knows? You may stumble on something

that will live on in -- and here's something to confuse you even further -- something that

will live on in time immemorial.