I think the count vs. mass noun distinction is even more striking because it's so simple yet native speakers don't realize it exists.
Every native English speaker knows this adjective order but likely never realised it. quantity opinion size age shape colour origin purpose
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Can you give me an example? Isn't it always obvious that something is a mass noun because it always uses the partitive article?
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Ah, I could quite never put my finger on this.
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Is the order similar in German?
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Hmm, I learnt osascomp, with “material” before “purpose”.
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I told my non-native-but-has-a-masters-in-linguistics wife about this once and she replied: "oh, of course, we did this during 1st year" :|
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I discovered it only recently, in a wonderful book called the Elements of Eloquence https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00KFEJN3Q/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_Nfw2zbDRVAQVB …
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this is news to me
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but it checks out :)
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Similar in Czech, just more flexible - though definitely general before specific and subjective before objective ones.
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With bunch of exceptions of course :D
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