# What order would you put these two adjectives in? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 1, 2015, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-order-would-you-put-these-two-adjectives-in/716520 "2015-04-01T17:26:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Dead\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9fc29f/32.png) [@Dead\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Cat)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2015, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-order-would-you-put-these-two-adjectives-in/716520/21 "2015-04-02T19:57:29Z")
> [@yellowjacketcoder](#): > > The book it’s from is a retelling of Goldilocks, so no Scottish influence there. Rubbish - the bears are obviously Scottish given their predilection for porridge :). ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2015, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-order-would-you-put-these-two-adjectives-in/716520/22 "2015-04-02T20:20:18Z")
In _Shrek_ when Puss in Boots first comes on the scene, the ogre says “look at 'im in his wee little boots”, so I think that is your definitive answer. ---
**Author:** ![Isilder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Isilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isilder)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2015, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-order-would-you-put-these-two-adjectives-in/716520/23 "2015-04-04T02:57:39Z")
If its a bucket or bottle, it had better be a wee little bucket…a little wee bucket means something else. Besides the loan word (from gaelic) is probably less significant, and “little boy” is part of English idiom, and “wee little” is part of english idiom, and all that combines with permanency question to make wee come first ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2015, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-order-would-you-put-these-two-adjectives-in/716520/24 "2015-04-04T07:13:56Z")
> [@yellowjacketcoder](#): > > Thanks for the responses guys. > > If anyone was wondering, the book used “little wee”, which frankly my brain kept autocorrecting to “wee little”, which is NOT what you want when trying to teach a kid to read. Glad I was just crazy. You’d prefer him to “wee more”? ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2015, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-order-would-you-put-these-two-adjectives-in/716520/25 "2015-04-04T12:48:13Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > Wee little. It’s partly due to the vowel sounds. Where we can, English-speakers tend to put vowels in high-to-low, front-to-back (referring to where in the mouth we produce these sounds) order. Say “wee little”, and notice where your tongue is on each word. The \* vowel of “wee” comes from the front of your mouth; you then move your tongue down and back for the [I] of “little”. > > This rule doesn’t always hold, but it’s a pretty common pattern: _spic and span, kith and kin, right and wrong._ It’s also the answer to the question “Why do baseball players call it a _hit and run_ when it’s really a _run and hit_?” This point has come up here recently in another thread, and I think there’s something to it. _Wee little_, though, is not technically a binomial such as _spic and span_ (there’s no _and_ or _or_). In this particular collocation, the _wee_ has a adverbial function, similar to _wee bit_, so it makes sense for _wee_ to come before the adjective _little_. But the OED has something to say about _little wee_: [QUOTE=OED] orig. Sc. A. n.1 In early use almost always _ **a little wee** _ , later also _ **a wee** _: = ‘a little’, ‘a (little) bit’; in various applications (chiefly as adverbial accusative). A little or young thing; a child. Obs. [/quote] So the author is probably just deliberately using antiquated language. **yellowjacketcoder** , what’s the complete context of the phrase? ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2015, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-order-would-you-put-these-two-adjectives-in/716520/26 "2015-04-04T22:48:08Z")
My reference is the wee little piggies rhyme you do while grabbing a kid’s toes. ---
**Author:** ![yellowjacketcoder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/4bbf92/32.png) [@yellowjacketcoder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellowjacketcoder)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2015, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-order-would-you-put-these-two-adjectives-in/716520/27 "2015-04-06T12:19:59Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > **yellowjacketcoder** , what’s the complete context of the phrase? All of the youngest bear’s items in the stories are described with the adjective pair, in addition to the little bear himself. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2015, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-order-would-you-put-these-two-adjectives-in/716520/28 "2015-04-06T15:39:20Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > In _Shrek_ when Puss in Boots first comes on the scene, the ogre says “look at 'im in his wee little boots”, so I think that is your definitive answer. This is truth. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/7LbumSMoQK8/hqdefault.jpg "SHREK CUTE CAT") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LbumSMoQK8) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-order-would-you-put-these-two-adjectives-in/716520.md?page=1)