Native English speakers… I hear the order of adjectives is important, and getting this wrong is jarring to read.
I’m making a pitch to upper management about building a “modular and versatile thingamawidget”. Or is it “versatile and modular thingamawidget”?
If it doesn’t matter, I think I’ll go for the latter, as it abbreviates to something easily pronouncable without sounding like a paramilitary group or a ride sharing business.
The latter is correct.
English has a fixed adjective order:
Determiner
Quantity
Opinion
Size
Age
Shape
Color
Origin/Material
Qualifier
“Versatile” is an opinion and “modular” is a qualifier.
“The single, versatile, large, new, round, blue, local, modular thingamawidget.”
I agree that “versatile, modular” is the right order. But is that order also preferred if the conjunction “and” is used to separate the adjectives? I thought the rule was particular to the peculiar way we can string together adjectives with no conjunction.
“Modular, versatile” sounds wrong, but “modular and versatile” less so.
I’m not sure on the rules/general use but my ear agrees with this. As soon as you put an “and” between them nearly any order seems totally normal.
"I present to you the next generation of thingamawidgets. The future of thingamawidging: The SVeLNeRBLoMTtm "
I can sort out the blue aspect through cheap spray paint, but I need to do some research on making a 19" rack round…