学英语一定要学语法，这个道理所有学过英语的人都懂。可是出生在英语国家的人，语法却“很烂”。
English grammar, beloved by sticklers, is also feared by non-native speakers. Many of its idiosyncrasies can turn into traps even for the most confident users.
英语语法受到以英语为母语的人士欢迎，也被非英语母语人士恐惧。很多语法规则，使用时一不小心就会落入陷阱，即便是最有信心的英语使用者也免不了落俗。
But some of the most binding rules in English are things that native speakers know but don’t know they know, even though they use them every day. When someone points one out, it’s like a magical little shock.
但是英语中一些最常见的语法规则，英语母语人士每天都在使用，却不知道自己原来知道。一旦被人指出，使用者就像受到魔法冲击，震惊不已。
In 2016, for example, the BBC’s Matthew Anderson pointed out a “rule” about the order in which adjectives have to be put in front of a noun. Judging by the number of retweets—over 47,000—this came as a complete surprise to many people who thought they knew all about English:
例如在2016年的时候，英国广播公司的马修安德森指出一条名词前放多个形容词的顺序“规则”。从转发次数看 —— 高达47,000多次 —— 让很多自以为了解英语的人大吃一惊。
That quote comes from a book called The Elements of Eloquence: How to Turn the Perfect English Phrase.Adjectives, writes the author, professional stickler Mark Forsyth, “absolutely have to be in this order: opinion-size-age-shape-colour-origin-material-purpose Noun. So you can have a lovely little old rectangular green French silver whittling knife. But if you mess with that order in the slightest you’ll sound like a maniac.”
推文中的图节选自口才的要素：如何说出完美的英语短语。形容词，单词语法规则的专家马克福赛思写道，“在名词前必须按以下顺序排列：观点-大小-年龄-形状-颜色-起源-材料-用途。因此，你可以有一把可爱的小小的古老的矩形绿色法式银色削刀。但是，哪怕你在使用时把顺序稍微调换一下，别人就会觉得你是个疯子。”
Mixing up the above phrase does, as Forsyth writes, feel inexplicably wrong (a rectangular silver French old little lovely whittling green knife…), though nobody can say why. It’s almost like secret knowledge we all share.
正如福赛思所写，把上面的短语进行其他混搭确实会感觉十分微妙（一把矩形的银色的法式古老的小小的可爱的修削用的绿色刀……），具体原因没人能说出个所以然。这种规则就像是我们共享的秘密知识。
Learn the language in a non-English-speaking country, however, and such “secrets” are taught in meticulous detail. Here’s a page from a book, published by Cambridge University Press, used regularly to teach English to non-native speakers. An English teacher in Hungary sent it to us.
但是，在一个非英语国家学习英语，这种语法“秘密”会被详细地教授给学生。下面是剑桥大学出版社出版的书中一页，这本书经常被非母语人士用来学习英语。一位匈牙利英语老师寄给我们的。
The book lays out the adjective order in the same way as Forsyth’s surprising illumination. Hungarian students, and no doubt those in many other countries, slave over the rule, committing it to memory and thinking through the order when called upon to describe something using more than one adjective.
书中写到的形容词排列顺序和福赛思推文提到的相同。毫无疑问，匈牙利的学生和其他国家的学生都要死记硬背这个语法规则，以便每次遇到名词前多个形容词时心中默背一遍。
The fact is, a lot of English grammar rules only come as a surprise to those who know them most intimately.
事实上，很多英语语法规则只会让那些最频繁使用英语的人感到惊讶。
Learning rules doesn’t always work, however. Forsyth also takes issue with the rules we think we know, but which don’t actually hold true. In a lecture about grammar, he dismantles the commonly held English spelling mantra ”I before E except after C.” It’s used to help people remember how to spell words like “piece,” but, Forsyth says, there are only 44 words that follow the rule, and 923 that don’t. His prime examples? “Their,” “being,” and “eight.”
所谓的语法规则也不一定适用所有情况。 福赛思提出有一些语法规则我们以为正确，但实际上并不成立。 在有关语法的演讲中，他辟谣了一个广为人知的英语拼写咒语“一个单词中，I一定在E之前，除非I在C之后”。 这是用于帮助人们记住如何拼写“piece”之类的单词，但福赛思指出，仅有44个单词遵循该规则，还有923个反例。 比如说？ “their”，"being”和“eight”。
转载自How Non-English Speakers Learn This Crazy Grammar Rule You Know But Never Heard Of (Cassie Werber)
