Order of adjectives [fair, long, curly hair + others] (2025)

gaer said:

. The has been controversy over this, and I'm neutral about the changes (many seem good), but can you imagine anyone saying, "Okay, starting in the year ---- everyone is going to change the spelling of these words…" In Spanish we used to write "fué, fuí, vió and dió" with tilde and as from some year (I don't remember when exactly, but it was a long time ago) those tildes were dropped, so we began writing "fue, fui, vio and dio". This was a change made by the RAE.
Because that's exactly what happened. "Duden" is the name that is always linked to such changes in Germany. I don't know if such central bodies exist in other countries. I think you refer to our Real Academia Española
On the other hand, what is so horrible and also marvelous about English is the lack of any "final word" as to what is right and wrong. Agree!! But for us Spanish-speaking students of English is really hard not to count with a central body such as RAE. Certainly there is a "core of agreement" regarding many areas of our language, but find writers seem to take special pleasure in "thumbing their noses" at rules, writing as they please and breaking many "rules".

Which brings me to the another point that I think follows from the first: most of the time (not all certainly!) rules are an attempt to explain what we do rather than a truly effective means of explaining why. Maybe you should try reading the origin of these rules in the semantic field Most of the examples you gave I would write as they have been shown, purely by feel, but I disagree with a couple: what's the other? I

might

also write: a long, lovely cool drink. I'm not sure. Perhaps the way shown is better. But IF you are righting a book of rules supporting your own hypotheses about what is right, or what is smooth, aren't you likely to pick examples that support your hypotheses? Of course! But why do you say that example does not support the hypothesis stated there?
I say this only because I teach my students (in music) all sorts of rules that generally work for beginners and intermediates, and they are necessary (because beginners need guidelines), but I know very well that most of these rules go right out the window in advanced music. In addition, I feel that IF you are advanced enough to understand complicated rules, you probably don't need them. Why not?. You may know a lot of technical vocabulary, grammar vocabulary and need rules as well. The fact that you can manage advanced technical language does not mean you need no rules. I am learning English and I'm learning how to understand rules and how to apply them, but language is changing everyday, it's dynamic, so even you are a grammarian you need to learn the constant changes in language. But if you are learning, I truly wonder if you would be able to understand such complicated rules.

But perhaps you would reach a mid-point, becoming very advance in reading, and then such rules might help in writing. I may be contradicting myself, because I'm just not sure. How much do rules really help? How much is mastering a language ultimately about feel and nothing more? Agree with you! I think rules help the beginners, but as I mentioned above, language is changing continually, so new rules are to be learn both by beginners , advanced learners and linguists.

An interesting problem!

Click to expand...

Gaer, I liked your post very much. I did not fully understand it, though. I think the last part of your post would be a never-ending discussion, depending on who you are discussing with. A grammarian would say that rules are definitely necessary, a philosopher would not...

I really is an interesting problem!