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"A new comfortable bed"" or "A comfortable new bed"

Which one is correct?

archangel89
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4 Answers4

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It might depend on whether or not the old bed was comfortable: "a new comfortable bed" could suggest that the old one was comfortable, which "a comfortable new bed" doesn't.

JJAD
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Why does not anyone say something about the logic behind the rule for ordering adjectives before nouns? Is this order totally random? Of course not!

In the rule given by the British Council (link in Avon's answer), "general opinion" versus "specific opinion" are not happy terms; the ones used further down are slightly better, "an adjective that gives an opinion" versus "an adjective that is descriptive", but they still do not make it clear enough what the ordering principle is.

a beautiful, comfortable, new, double bed

beautiful = a matter of opinion, subjective, different from individual to individual

comfortable = a matter of general opinion, the notion of what a "comfortable bed" is is shared by most people in a community (in Switzerland, for instance, most people now consider soft mattresses to be less comfortable than harder ones, contrary to what was thought one or two generations earlier), so it is "inter-subjective", which makes it closer to an objective quality

new = a bed that has never been slept in yet, an objective quality, but you would have to be told by someone whether the bed has been slept in or not, you cannot really see it

double = a type of bed, a measurable, objective quality which you can witness yourself

So, obviously, the overall ordering principle is to do with "accidental" versus "essential": the less a quality is part of an object (subjective appreciation, for instance) the further it is from the noun, and the more it is part of it, part of its nature (undisputable objective qualities), the closer to the noun it is.

To order the objective qualities, have in mind the work involved in changing the object, in making it other than it is:

a new red American sports car

most difficult thing to change: change a sports car into another type of car (think of Harold in Harold and Maude turning a Jaguar Type E he has just received into a hearse)

second most difficult thing to change: an American sports car into an Italian sports car; sports cars share common qualities which make it slightly less difficult to turn one into the other, kind of

red: paint it another colour, and you have it!

new? Just drink-drive it once, probably!

The more work involved, the more the quality of the object is essential, intrinsic, and has to be close to the noun.

And if a foreigner finds cases where this does not work, then it means they have learnt enough English to confidently discard the rule! But in the meantime, it will have helped them!

(Probably in for a bashing again… Why are native speakers of English such rule-haters? Feeling one is encroaching upon their freedom? The very same rule will come in handy when you learn French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, German!)

user58319
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  • Well analysed and explained. I wouldn't call it a rule though, just good practice. And I don't think I'm hating on rules by thinking this needn't be elevated to such a status. That there's a sensible logic to it is reassuring. It makes it much easier to remember and apply than a seemingly arbitrary sequence of vague terms. – Avon Jul 22 '15 at 15:08
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http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/ar/comment/81974 recommends this order to adjectives:

General opinion, Specific opinion, Size, Shape, Age, Colour, Nationality, Material

So that would be:

comfortable (opinion) new (age) bed

Avon
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I assume you mean a bed that's new and comfortable, in which case you need a comma between the adjectives. People make up charts that tell you the supposedly-proper order to put the adjectives, and the one I referenced says "observation before age before qualifier." So if you think "comfortable" is an observation like "beautiful," then it's

comfortable, new bed

If you think "comfortable" is a qualifier like "four-poster," then it's

new, comfortable bed

I don't hear much difference.

deadrat
  • 44,678
  • Very few people would insist on the comma to distinguish 'a new and comfortable bed' from 'a new bed that is comfortable'. Sometimes, usage leaves us stuck with ambiguities (which immediate context, speaking patterns, or clarifications address.) – Edwin Ashworth Jul 22 '15 at 09:57
  • +1 for the nuance on "comfortable" as qualifier. But for insisting on the comma, we must bring out the comfy chair. – TimR Jul 22 '15 at 10:43
  • which goes in the direction of my answer: you were travelling the right way, but were not there yet! – user58319 Jul 22 '15 at 11:58
  • the notion of comfort for a bed can change over my lifetime, or over generations or centuries, less so the quality of newness, so the order first displayed in your answer sounds more natural than the second – user58319 Jul 22 '15 at 13:09