Native English speakers… I hear the order of adjectives is important, and getting this wrong is jarring to read.

I’m making a pitch to upper management about building a “modular and versatile thingamawidget”. Or is it “versatile and modular thingamawidget”?

If it doesn’t matter, I think I’ll go for the latter, as it abbreviates to something easily pronouncable without sounding like a paramilitary group or a ride sharing business.

  • AmidFuror
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    101 month ago

    I agree that “versatile, modular” is the right order. But is that order also preferred if the conjunction “and” is used to separate the adjectives? I thought the rule was particular to the peculiar way we can string together adjectives with no conjunction.

    “Modular, versatile” sounds wrong, but “modular and versatile” less so.

    • DontTakeMySky
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      81 month ago

      I’m not sure on the rules/general use but my ear agrees with this. As soon as you put an “and” between them nearly any order seems totally normal.