Native English speakers… I hear the order of adjectives is important, and getting this wrong is jarring to read.
I’m making a pitch to upper management about building a “modular and versatile thingamawidget”. Or is it “versatile and modular thingamawidget”?
If it doesn’t matter, I think I’ll go for the latter, as it abbreviates to something easily pronouncable without sounding like a paramilitary group or a ride sharing business.
Although there is a common adjective order, it’s not always clear which category a word belongs in. People insisting that the words “modular” and “versatile” fit into whatever category they chose are presenting a lot more certainty than is warranted. I am a native speaker, and either order sounds fine in this case.
Neither sounds “wrong” to my ear, but if I had to pick one, hmmmm…I think modular things are inherently versatile, but versatile things aren’t inherently modular, so I would go with “versatile and modular” so it gets more specific from first word to second word.
Or consider not using both those words.
Edit: the order of adjectives usually matters when they are different types of adjectives, like “five big brown bears”. You have a number, a size, and a color. That one sounds wrong if you get them out of order. But modular and versatile are the same kind of adjective, so I don’t think there’s really a wrong choice here.
I tend to agree with you. Plus, with this particular thing, it’s possible to build it to be modular and not versatile, or the other way around. Or neither, which we’re using now.
To my ear, modular and versatile are so similar that I wouldn’t connect them with “and”. It’s almost redundant, like “grey and colorless”.
Also, “versatile” without any more context is devoid of meaning.Hard to say without more info, but my instinct is, it would sound nicer to pitch a “modular thingamawidget” and explain its versatility in another sentence or a subordinate clause.
There’s a lot of context that I cannot share without making it a two week course in what I do for a living, but to put it simply, both versatility and modularity are descriptors that make sense together for the intended audience, as the system can be one without the other. Plus versatile refers to the software, and modular refers to the hardware.
In that case, I think the whole question is moot. The umbrella term of thingamawidget is not both modular and versatile, but its constituent parts are individually. “The thingamawidget with versatile software and modular hardware is…” would then be the more accurate description.
Otherwise it’s like describing a brownie as wet and bitter because the egg is wet and the raw cocoa is bitter.
Putting the shortest word first sounds better.
‘Men and women’ is the usual order, as is ‘ladies and gentlemen.’
I’d go with modular first. imho
I would say modular and versatile. Other one sounds off, but not in a critical way.
