Word order

[woolybanana]

Should it be China ex-railway minister convicted  or Ex-China railway minister convicted? The former is from the BBC website and seems not quite right to me. Though to be fair, the adjective order before the noun is not entirely fixed.

[Mr Ceour de Lion II]

I'd say the first one. The second one sounds like he used to be Chinese. Although perhaps Chinese ex-railway minister would be most correct.

[Pickles]

It might be clearer to write "ex-minister of railways of China". The BBC and the media in general have tied themselves into knots on this subject eg "our Europe correspondent" which looks awful and could be better expressed as "our correspondent on European affairs". Given the amount of print and airtime wasted on padding, the argument of the need to be concise seems irrelevant.

[mint]

Do you know, I'm sometimes seriously worried about the way that I now confuse word order.  Not only in French because, for me, that's a given; that I would muddle up the word order, but in English, for heaven's sake [:'(]

Not half an hour ago, I'd taken the dog for a swim in the local river and, on the way back, took care to find some shade to park the car whilst I popped into Aldi to pick up some salad ingredients for lunch.

When I got back to the car, I felt the dog to see if she was hot.  She felt warm and still wet from her swim.  So I told her I'd have her home in a few minutes and I'd give her a "drink of long, cold water"!  Then, I frowned and it took me a minute or two to get that right but the dog wagged her tail in a sympathetic manner so it seems that my dog at least doesn't mind when I get the word order wrong.

[YCCMB]

I'm with Mr CdL. Although I'd prefer "China's". I was trying to sort this out with a student only a couple of weeks ago. She was doing her CV and kept writing things like "responsible for the distribution of products" whereas I wanted her to write "responsible for product distribution", but in that context, brevity is necessary, and not quite so ugly.

ETA: Unless, of course, you're saying that "China railway" is all a noun. In which case, I'd like the Railway bit to be Railway and not railway.

[Mr Ceour de Lion II]

[quote user="sweet 17"]

Do you know, I'm sometimes seriously worried about the way that I now confuse word order.  Not only in French because, for me, that's a given; that I would muddle up the word order, but in English, for heaven's sake [:'(]

Not half an hour ago, I'd taken the dog for a swim in the local river and, on the way back, took care to find some shade to park the car whilst I popped into Aldi to pick up some salad ingredients for lunch.

When I got back to the car, I felt the dog to see if she was hot.  She felt warm and still wet from her swim.  So I told her I'd have her home in a few minutes and I'd give her a "drink of long, cold water"!  Then, I frowned and it took me a minute or two to get that right but the dog wagged her tail in a sympathetic manner so it seems that my dog at least doesn't mind when I get the word order wrong.

[/quote]

She was probably like "Mum, I don't give a toss if you're going to give me a water, cold long drink, just give me it already!"

And that's another thing that's always bugged me, what is it with the word 'already' at the end of sentences like that?

[YCCMB]

[quote user="Mr Ceour de Lion II"]

She was probably like "Mum, I don't give a toss if you're going to give me a water, cold long drink, just give me it already!"

And that's another thing that's always bugged me, what is it with the word 'already' at the end of sentences like that?

[/quote]

That's probably more New Jersey than New Milton. In fact, it's more Yiddish than WASP.

[Pickles]

The Grauniad went for "China's former railways minister"

[NormanH]

I might have written "China's former minister for railways.".

[mint]

If Gengulphus is about, he might remember giving me the following little gem:

a pair of elegant old red Spanish leather riding boots

G, if I have left out any other adjectives or somehow muddled up the order, would you please come and correct?[:)]

[idun]

[quote user="NormanH"]I might have written "China's former minister for railways.".

[/quote]

I like that NH.

[EuroTrash]

What I really hate is "the then"; As in "the then minister for railways". Possibly partly because I'm reluctant to accept that 'then' can be an adjective but mostly because it sounds so ugly. But I'm told it is acceptable.