American English puts adjectives before nouns. Okay. Not too confusing. We even add a LOT of adjectives in a row and finally get to the noun. But what about a noun in front of another noun? The first noun becomes an adjective! Okay, now that I know that, maybe not too confusing. But what about an adjective before a noun before another noun? YIKES! Stop. Totally confusing. If your communications include this sequence, please rethink the wording so that your listeners / readers/ customers do not become confused.
Here is an example of the first scenario: Small dog. Small brown dog. Small, brown, cute dog. Small, brown, cute, shaggy dog. You get the idea. Just keep adding adjectives, as long as there is only one noun, I am not confused (but I may run out of patience looking for the noun).
For the second scenario, I’ll tell you about a conversation I had with a neighbor when we were talking about the recent freezing weather: She starts by saying, “My back is bad.” I think that she is talking about her back, especially because I was weeding when she started to talk. Back is a noun. Then she adds, “My back yard.” (usually combined into one word – backyard). Ah hah! A combination of nouns that turns the first noun into an adjective. What yard? A yard at the back of the house. Okay. Got it.
- A slight modification is a noun, then an adjective, then a noun, like the star spangled banner. To be sure we read the phrase as the banner is the noun, modified by the two preceding words, it would be clearer to write it as star-spangled banner. If this phrase is orally communicated; however, the meaning could be confusing.
It’s the third scenario that REALLY confuses me.
Here is an example, from a website that sells a variety of items: “quilted clothes organizers.”
- Is this an organizer for “quilted clothes” or is the organizer the thing that is quilted? Does the adjective, quilted, modify the first noun or the second? Or both?
- It turns out that the organizer is quilted. I had to read further: “Quilted organizer keeps clothes fresh.” So, only the second noun was modified by the adjective.
Here is my favorite confusing example: If I order “shrimp cocktail” at a restaurant or hotel, I most often receive large shrimp. But the serving is small. And the container is small.
So, what does it mean when my local grocery store advertises a “small shrimp platter“?
- Hmm . . . are the shrimp small or is the platter small? It turns out that BOTH are small. AGH!
That’s why changing a noun (shrimp) into an adjective (what kind of platter? a shrimp platter!) and then adding another adjective (small) can cause confusion! Those of you who send marketing materials or communicate with a lot of adjectives, please don’t make your customers and listeners guess!
- What examples of confusing adjectives have you seen??
Or….is the website advertising its contractors who will fold, stack, and organize your quilted clothes?
Laura Beth! I never considered that interpretation. But I like it!
For your first scenario, a fun thing to look into is OSASCOMP. It sounds like a megacorporation or something. You may think you’ve never heard of it, but it encodes our ‘order’ of adjectives (Opinion, size, age….etc).
I can say ‘There’s a small brown dog.’ If I say ‘it’s a brown small dog,’ people look at me funny. It’s because we’re all instinctively enforcers of OSASCOMP.
Many languages have a specific order, and Romance languages famously can even put the adjective after the noun, which you only do in English to be edgy (Paradise Lost, A Clockwork Orange, The Matrix Reloaded, etc.).
Fun topic!
I have never heard of OSASCOMP! (and I am sure that I will never remember these letters in the future). But I appreciate the confirmation that the order of adjectives and nouns is cultural – the input about “Romance” languages is so appropriate for my students. Funny about how English puts the adjective after the noun to be edgy. 😉
Very interesting! Thank you for the input!
Just thinking of the small brown dog. You’d never say brown old small dog. It would be small old brown dog. Funny!
Here’s another example that confused me (and the plants I purchased): I bought three “miniature rose bushes.” Two turned out to be miniature bushes with miniature roses. One turned out to be a big bush (with miniature roses). Surprise!
I found another one! This time, it’s the name of a store: “Littlest Pet Shop.”
For very little pets? Or is it the store that is little?
This is a really good one…I will be thinking about it for a long time because I can’t even guess what the intent was. Did you peek in the window? Tell me please, tiny pets or tiny store? : )
I don’t know which noun is “tiny”! I just saw an ad for the store, and it confused me. HOWEVER, I think a couple of things – let me know what you think about my conclusions.
One, I think that the intent was that the store is very small, but maybe not tiny. After all, if we are talking about tiny pets, we would have to include small goldfish, ants, snails, and who knows how many other tiny pets people own. Little pets could be mice and other small rodents, small lizards, etc.
Two, I think that if the store had been named “Shoppe,” invoking an olde English spelling, then I think that the intent is even more clearly that the “shop” is tiny.
What do you think?