Only Slate Plus members can gift Slate stories. Become a member to share 10 free articles a month. It is a lovely warm August day outside, and I am wearing a green loose top. Does the second part of ...

Unlikely as it sounds, the topic of adjective use has gone “viral”. The furore centres on the claim, taken from Mark Forsyth’s book The Elements of Eloquence, that adjectives appearing before a noun ...

Word order matters. Most people don’t think about it, but there is usually a specific order adjectives must appear in. For example, “the brown old big house” just doesn’t have the right ring — “the ...

But is the “rule” worthy of an internet storm – or is it more of a ripple in a teacup? Well, certainly the example is a rather unlikely sentence, and not simply because whittling knives are not in ...