I continue to be surprised at what I come across, about the "new" aspects of the English language (new at least to me!).

Recently, a friend mentioned this thing called "adjective order". That there's an order to apply adjectives (words used to describe a noun). However, I don't remember studying this in school. Or maybe it just did not register then!

Inspired by this, and at her behest, onSponge has posted a short article on it. See Adjective types: Your child knows this?

I was able to respond to a couple of her examples correctly, but I couldn't explain why I answered the way I did...I was relying on my "sense" of correctness. This I attributed to my love of reading.

One learns a lot about language by reading, and most of it becomes unconscious appreciation, that helps form a sense of what is right or wrong.

Of course, this is not fool-proof. Why? If we read badly constructed material often enough, we really are none the wiser!

On the conscious level, learning a language by drilling is so boring. Rather, start your child's language learning journey by getting him or her to read books/material that they like. If they are crazy about dinosaurs, get them books on those, or it could be on soccer, etc.

I know schools must have some drill to impart conscious knowledge of language structures.

It's in that context we have "adjective types" :)

So I live and learn something "new" everyday, a testimony that learning is an ongoing journey.