Thursday, July 07, 2005

Ali's Big Blue Book

I'm bringing up an issue I used to discuss the past 3 years with friends. This is not an english lesson, but an english lesson question that has remained unanswered until today. It's "HOW TO DESCRIBE SOMETHING".

Now, let's say there's a book. And it belongs to Ali. We'll say it's Ali's book.
Add BLUE to the equation. And we'll say it's "Ali's blue book", not "blue Ali's book".

Now, that book is big. Therefore, we have two choices. It's either "Ali's blue big book" or "Ali's big blue book". Of course the latter sounds better. Simple enough right? It's owner, followed by size and then colour.

Now, the CHALLENGE!!

Please describe the tablecloth in a good structured sentence/s. I've never found a good way to describe it. Anyway, I'm not hoping for anyone to reply also, but well, what the heck. At least it stimulates me again on this issue.

1. It's a tablecloth
2. It belongs to Ali (owner)
3. It's brown (colour)
4. It's old (age)
5. It's torn (condition)
6. It's made of silk (material)
7. It's wet (another condition)
8. It's heavy (weight)
9. It's dirty (yet another condition)
10. It's ugly (yet yet another condition)
11. It's transparent (yet yet yet another condition)
12. It's large (size)

Therefore, it's "Ali's large old, transparent, heavy, wet, ugly, dirty, torn, silky brown tablecloth"?? Sounds very confusing.

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