Check out the comments section of any site and you’ll find that a majority of the English speaking world is borderline illiterate, especially when it comes to using full words, syntax and grammar – and I’m referring to first language English speakers here.

This week, journalist Matthew Anderson pointed out a “rule” about the order in which adjectives have to be put in front of a noun. Turns out we all use this rule without realising it.

This means that even if you struggle to string a coherent sentence together, you’re probably getting some grammar right.

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

— Matthew Anderson (@MattAndersonNYT) September 3, 2016

Quartz reports that the 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.

If you’re learning the language in another country, however, these secrets are taught in great detail:

Hungarian students, and no doubt those in many other countries, slave over the rule, committing it to memory and thinking through the order when called upon to describe something using more than one adjective.

The fact is, a lot of English grammar rules only come as a surprise to those who know them most intimately.

Forsyth is quick to point out that learning the rules won’t always work. Remember “I before E except after C” from primary school? The rule only applies to 44 words in the English language.

Best practice? Don’t ignore the squiggly lines under your sentences in Word, or hook your browser up with Grammarly, and you should be fine.

[source: quartz]