[ELI5] why do we use words in order like “the cute little red car” and not something like “the little red cute car”?

Question

[ELI5] why do we use words in order like “the cute little red car” and not something like “the little red cute car”?

In: 267

Answer 1

Languages are strange.

I speak english quite fluently, but my mothertongue is italian.

I just noticed how I would **think** the same sentence in opposite direction in each language, without noticing it.

In English it sounds natural to say it cute > little > red

In italian i would say it like “that little car cute (and) red” or “that car little cute red” or really any other combination of “noun adj adj adj”, I would change the order based on what adjective I want to enphasize, the first one would be the most important while the last one just for flavour.

Of course different language, different grammar, different rules: that’s normal… But I never really *noticed* it until now.

It just went, without actively thinking about it.

The rules of grammar are born by collective use over time. They rarely have a strict “reason why”, most of the time it’s just natural evolution that “condensates” into rules.