El orden de los adjetivos en inglés

¡TENGAN TODOS UN DÍA MUY TUBULAR! Me queda difícil pensar en una mejor forma para desearles un buen día. ¿Recuerdan quiénes usaban esa expresión? Exacto: las Tortugas ninja adolescentes mutantes (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles  ®). Cuando era niño era un admirador embebido de las tortugas ninja. Hace poco descubrí que ellas tienen la clave para explicar el orden de los adjetivos en el idioma inglés.

(Basil the Bunny kindly designed by Diana Lucía Gómez)

¿Qué viene primero?

Piensa en una persona a la que verdaderamente quieres mucho. Puede ser tu mamá, tu papá, algún familiar, tu pareja o un personaje que sea una inspiración. ¿Podrías describirle con un solo adjetivo? (Recuerda que los adjetivos son palabras que modifican a los sustantivos describiendo sus características y cualidades) Sería muy difícil, ¿Verdad? Por ejemplo, sobre mi hermana yo diría que ella es tenaz (resilient), pero también es recursiva (resourceful) , e inteligente (intelligent). Y graciosa (funny). De querer poner todas estas virtudes de la primogénita de mi casa paterna en una frase, ¿Cómo podría hacerlo?

My sister is a resilient, resourceful, intelligent and funny woman?

(¿Mi hermana es una mujer tenaz, recursiva, inteligente y graciosa?)

My sister is a resourceful, intelligent, funny and resilient woman?

(¿Mi hermana es una mujer recursiva, inteligente, graciosa y tenaz?)

My sister is an intelligent, funny, resilient and resourceful woman?

(¿Mi hermana es una mujer inteligente, graciosa, tenaz y recursiva?)

 

Pues bien, si observamos a las Tortugas ninja adolescentes mutantes (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles  ®) encontraremos la respuesta.

Los adjetivos que vienen antes de la cosa que estás describiendo siguen este orden en inglés: lo primero que mencionas es ya una opinión subjetiva o ya la característica que puede cambiar más fácilmente. En el caso de las tortugas, se trata de “Teenage” (adolescentes) porque en un par de años se convertirán en las “Adult Mutant Ninja Turtles” (Tortugas ninja adultas mutantes) y a nadie le interesará eso. En el caso de mi hermana lo primero que mencionaré será “Funny” (graciosa) porque es mi opinión. Otras personas pueden pensar que es tan agria como la crema agria que le pones a los burritos (mmm, burritos). El adjetivo más cercano al sustantivo es la característica más difícil de alterar o que es inherente a la cosa que estás describiendo. Volviendo al cuento, en el caso de las tortugas sería “Ninja” –aunque no sea un adjetivo en el sentido estricto sino un sustantivo haciendo las veces de un adjetivo- la palabra más cercana al adjetivo. Ser ninja es algo en lo que te conviertes y que nunca dejas de ser. Aún si se vuelven ancianas y promedio, seguirán siendo las Tortugas ninja. Cuando hablamos de mi hermana, es mi parecer que “inteligente” es la que se halla junto al sustantivo; ha demostrado serlo a lo largo de los años y mucha gente con la que ha trabajo puede dar fe de ello. Así que su descripción sería como se muestra a continuación à

My sister is a funny, resourceful, resilient and intelligent woman.

(Mi hermana es una mujer ointeligente, recursive, tenaz y graciosa).

 

Mantén presente esta sencilla regla y podrás utilizar los adjetivos en inglés de una forma más eficiente. Sólo por practicar, ¿Por qué no intentas describir una persona que sea importante para ti en una oración llena de adjetivos en la sección de comentarios?

Espero poder leer tu contribución.

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Addendum

Ayer vía Twitter, el usuario y entusiaste del lenguaje @ratapaloma_ compartió una maravillosa mnemotecnia para recordar el orden correcto de los adjetivos calificativos en inglés. Sólo recuerden estas palabras:  OSAS COMUN, Es un acrónimo de Opinion (opinión), Size (tamaño), Age (edad), Shape (forma), Color (color), Origin (procedencia), Material (material), Usage (uso) y Noun (sustantivo). Mantén las palabras en ese orden y no podrás equivocarte.

Order of adjectives

MAY YOUR DAY BE TUBULAR, EVERYONE! I can hardly think of any better wish for a good day. Do you remember where that comes from? Exactly: the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ®. Back when I was a kid, I was a huge fan of the TMNTs. Recently I discovered they hold the key to explain the order of adjectives in the English language.

(Basil the Bunny kindly designed by Diana Lucía Gómez)

What comes first?

Think of a person you really love. This may be your mother, your father, a relative, your significant other or an inspirational figure. Could you describe them with one single adjective? (Remember that adjectives are words that modify nouns, usually by describing their qualities and characteristics) It would be very difficult, wouldn’t it? For example, I’d say about my sister that she is resilient, but she is also resourceful, and intelligent. And funny. So, if I want to put all these traits of my elder sibling in a sentence, how can I do it?

My sister is a resilient, resourceful, intelligent and funny woman?

My sister is a resourceful, intelligent, funny and resilient woman?

My sister is an intelligent, funny, resilient and resourceful woman?

 

Well, if we look at the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ® we can find the answer.

The adjectives that come before the thing you are describing follow this order: the first you mention is either a subjective opinion or the characteristic that is easier to change. In the case of the turtles, it is “Teenage” because just in a couple of years they will become the “Adult Mutant Ninja Turtles” and no one will be interested in that. In my sister’s case the first thing I will mention is “Funny” because this is my opinion. Some other people may think she is as sour as the sour cream you put in burritos (hmm, burritos). The adjective closest to the noun is the characteristic that is most difficult to change or that is inherent to the thing you are describing. Again, in the case of the turtles, “Ninja” –albeit not strictly an adjective but a noun working as one- is the one closest to the noun. Being ninja is something that you become and you can never stop being; even if they become elder and average, they will still be the ninja turtles. When it comes to my sister, I believe “intelligent” is the one to be found next to the noun; she has proved to be so all along the years and many people who have worked with her can attest to that. So, her description would be as follows à

My sister is a funny, resourceful, resilient and intelligent woman.

 

Keep this easy rule in mind and you will be able to use adjectives in a more efficient way. For the sake of practice, why don’t you go ahead and try to describe a person who is important to you with one adjective-packed sentence in the comments?

I’ll be looking forward to reading from you.

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Addendum

Yesterday and via Twitter, user and language freak @ratapaloma_ shared a wonderful mnemonic technique to remember the appropriate order of descriptive adjectives.Simply remember these two words: OSAS COMUN, they stand for Opinion, Size, Age, Shape, Color, Origin, Material, Usage and Noun. Keep things in that order and there is no going wrong. 

Pardon me for prepositioning…

Prepositions are probably the trickiest of all the grammar categories to master. It is easy to find proficient English speakers blanketed in diplomas and certificates still making mistakes regarding the usage of “at”, “in” or “on”.

But this should not discourage us. The first thing to remember is that prepositions in English refer mainly to space, time and relations between an action and its complement. This means we can use them to say where something is or happens, when it takes place and how an action affects the object that follows. The second thing to remember about them is that there are two classes that one must pay attention to: static and directional. Quite simply, a directional preposition indicates movement and a static preposition doesn’t. There are some prepositions that are very strict about being directional or static, some others are more flexible and can sometimes be found under both categories.

We are going to look at a couple of well-known prepositions, their practical guidelines and hopefully make sense of their application.

1. AT

This is quite a dynamic little word. Let’s look at it in order. First, talking about space:

• You can use it when you are in front of something:

“There is someone at the door” (meaning that a person is waiting to be let in).

“We sat at the table” (we were getting ready to share a meal).

• A very common (and understandable) confusion has to do with when to use “in” and when to use “at”. For instance: when do you say “in the library” and when “at the library”? Well, I have a simple rule: think about an airport that you know. I think about this small, dark and unkempt airport where I landed many times. And then think about Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris (where U2 made the videoclip for “Beautiful Day”): so big, so clean and all that. BUT at the end of the day both places have exactly the same function: airplanes land and take off with passengers boarding and unloading. They are airports regardless their specifications, they are common-function places. We can safely use the preposition “at” with places like these:

“At the airport”

“At the school”

“At the hospital”

“At the restaurant”

There is no doubt you can think of some other such common-function places.

• You should use “at” when you refer to events:

“At a party”

“At a funeral”

“At a meeting”

“At an orgy”

And now for time.

• You can use “at” to talk about the time when an event will take place:

“The class is at 4:20”.

“The bus leaves at 9:00”.

“The movie begins at 8:30”.

• You use it in certain collocations (collocations are groups of words that you use in the same order every time to convey one single idea):

“At once”.

“At the moment” (not “in the moment”).

“At the weekend” (most common in British contexts).

2. IN

This is probably the most popular preposition in the whole lot. Before we go any further, let’s make sure we don’t imagine that “in” and “into” are interchangeable in every circumstance. “In” is a preposition that can be either directional or static, whereas “into” is almost invariably directional. That means that “into” refers to going from the outside in:

“He walked into the room” (he was outside and came in).

“She talked some sense into me” (I was not acting sensibly and she explained things in a way that made sense. Sense was out and after she talked to me, it was in).

Having cleared that out, let’s look at “in”. First, space.

• You use “in” when you are in a closed space:

“In the room”

“In the building”

“In a nutshell” (this is an expression that means you are going to explain something in its most basic essence).

• “In” is used in geographic references (towns, cities, countries, continents and so on). This explains why, when traveling, the correct verb + preposition to use at the end of your journey is “arrive in” (e.g.: we arrived in Asunción at 5:00 a.m.):

“In Bogotá”

“In Burkina Faso”

“In Mapiripán”

And now, for time.

• “In” is used to talk about something that happens within limits of a long period:

“I was born in 1985”.

“Birds travel south in the winter”.

“Burning witches was a popular hobby in the 14^th Century”.

• “In” is also used to tell how long it will be between now and the occurrence of an event:

“The class will begin in five minutes”.

“An asteroid will destroy Earth in 137 years”.

“I’ll be out in a minute!”

 

Do you have questions about a specific preposition? Leave a comment, then!