[ELI5] why do we use words in order like “the cute little red car” and not something like “the little red cute car”?
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Questions like this don’t really have an answer. That’s just how it came to be. Why are some languages SVO while others are SOV? That’s just how they came to be. Why does English put its adjectives before the noun instead of after like other languages? That’s just how it came to be. There’s not really a reason other than it just arbitrarily sounds right to the speakers of that language. Why does it sound fine to say “Pick up Max,” but not “Pick up him”? (One would say, “Pick him up.”) It’s just what sounds right.
Also, because we need to know what the object is before we know what color it is. Especially when trying to picture it in your head.
Um, your order is off. Lol. Cute is an opinion and should go first.
“The cute, little, red car”. This is the proper order.
Edit: I read this too fast and you did present the actual order. 🤦🏻♂️
We just do. English has a specific order of adjectives, and every native speaker intuits it without formal instruction just like we learn every other part of our native language without much instrction.
As for why it’s in *that* order… it’s arbitrary. There’s no reason. It’s just the order we collectively decided over the several thousands of years it took for our language to evolve into its current form.
Every other language has an adjective order, and they don’t align with English’s adjective order. They just decided differently.
I just say things how I want to say them. is there an actual order? 🤦♀️
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