5 Unofficial Rules Native English Speakers Don't Realize They Know @ Mental Floss

5 Unofficial Rules Native English Speakers Don't Realize They Know

Mental Floss: 9.12.2016 (updated 9.04.2020) by Arika Okrent

Woodward English

It can be shocking to realize that we are able to follow grammar rules that no one ever taught us explicitly. But that’s what most of language is—not the little things that textbooks tell us we’re getting wrong, but the solid ones we always get right. Non-native speakers, however, might get them wrong, and that gives us a good opportunity to get a peek at the rules we don’t otherwise notice.

WHY IT’S “GREAT GREEN DRAGONS” AND NOT “GREEN GREAT DRAGONS”

In 2016, the BBC’s Matthew Anderson tweeted about a rule that “English speakers know, but don’t know we know.” It was a screen grab of a passage from Mark Forsyth’s The Elements of Eloquence explaining that the reason “great green dragons” sounds better than “green great dragons” is that we unconsciously follow a rule that stipulates that the order of adjectives in English goes opinion-size-age-shape-color-origin-material-purpose. Size comes before color, so no “green great dragons.”

2. WHY WE SAY “MY BROTHER’S CAR” AND NOT “THE CAR OF MY BROTHER”

ARROW

3. WHY IT’S “ABSO-FREAKIN’-LUTELY” AND NOT “ABSOLUTE-FREAKIN’-LY”

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Automatic Readability Checker

Based on 7 readability formulas:

Grade Level: 11

Reading Level: standard / average.

Reader's Age: 15-17 yrs. old

(Tenth to Eleventh graders)