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Something I've Learned Today


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Today I have learned, that you should check your laundry twice, before you through it into the washing machine… otherwise your (usually white) panties and socks will be as light green as mine are now :/

 

Oops!  :giggle:

 

I have very few items of white clothing, underwear, towels etc that have not been discoloured in the wash. I'm terrible! You'd think I'd learn my lesson, but no...I keep doing it!

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I wasn't sure where else to put this, but I thought this would be an appropriate topic, since it's something I learned today.

 

Through the Modern Mrs. Darcy website, I came across this link: How non-English speakers are taught this crazy English grammar rule you know but have never heard of and it's about an English grammar rule that native English speakers use but don't really know about.

 

I'll quote a part here:

 

English grammar, beloved by sticklers, is also feared by non-native speakers. Many of its idiosyncrasies can turn into traps even for the most confident users.

 

But some of the most binding rules in English are things that native speakers know but don’t know they know, even though they use them every day. When someone points one out, it’s like a magical little shock.

 

This week, for example, the BBC’s Matthew Anderson pointed out a “rule” about the order in which adjectives have to be put in front of a noun. Judging by the number of retweets—over 47,000 at last count—this came as a complete surprise to many people who thought they knew all about English:

 

Things native English speakers know, but don't know we know: pic.twitter.com/Ex0Ui9oBSL

— Matthew Anderson (@MattAndersonBBC) September 3, 2016

 

That quote comes from a book called The Elements of Eloquence: How to Turn the Perfect English Phrase. Adjectives, writes the author, professional stickler Mark Forsyth, “absolutely have to be in this order: opinion-size-age-shape-colour-origin-material-purpose Noun. So you can have a lovely little old rectangular green French silver whittling knife. But if you mess with that order in the slightest you’ll sound like a maniac.”

 

Mixing up the above phrase does, as Forsyth writes, feel inexplicably wrong (a rectangular silver French old little lovely whittling green knife…), though nobody can say why. It’s almost like secret knowledge we all share.

I don't remember being taught this rule (opinion-size-age-shape-colour-origin-material-purpose Noun), though maybe I have been taught and just forgot about it. But it sounds interesting. I've never really thought about it, but putting the words in a different order, does make it sound wrong!

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  • 3 weeks later...

I wasn't sure where else to put this, but I thought this would be an appropriate topic, since it's something I learned today.

 

Through the Modern Mrs. Darcy website, I came across this link: How non-English speakers are taught this crazy English grammar rule you know but have never heard of and it's about an English grammar rule that native English speakers use but don't really know about.

 

I'll quote a part here:

 

 

I don't remember being taught this rule (opinion-size-age-shape-colour-origin-material-purpose Noun), though maybe I have been taught and just forgot about it. But it sounds interesting. I've never really thought about it, but putting the words in a different order, does make it sound wrong!

 

Fabulous! :clapping: I can't remember ever being taught this but it just must be an inherently instinctive thing we all do based on how something sounds. ;)

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