The unwritten rule of English that nobody realises they know

If you were to describe a lovely little old rectangular green French silver whittling knife – could you explain exactly why those words should go in that order?

Probably not, but you know that they should. There’s actually a very specific rule that explains why, and it goes like this:

This confusing but perfectly explained rule comes from Mark Forsyth’s book The Elements of Eloquence: How to Turn the Perfect English Phrase.

BBC journalist Matthew Anderson's photo of the book excerpt has since been shared more than 5,000 times.

Although some people were dubious...

Most were pretty blown away by Forsyth's explanation, though...

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