Order of adjectives in English

I'm always thinking about the subtle problems which would arise when
teaching people English. One thing I've become aware of lately is the
fact that, without even realizing it, English speakers seem to
naturally order adjectives. If a noun is modified by two or more
adjectives, there seems to usually be one way to order them which
"sounds right" and everything else sounds off.

Ex: "The cute fuzzy bear" sounds good. "The fuzzy cute bear*" sounds
bad, almost to the point of sounding nongrammatical.

In fact, if the adjectives are listed out of order, my brain seems to
want to treat the first adjective as an adverb. In the "fuzzy cute
bear" example, my brain wants to think of "fuzzy" as an adverb, sort
of like "the really cute bear" or "the crazy cute bear" (using the
informal slang adverb sense of "crazy"-- "How cute is the bear? The
bear is FUZZY cute!")

Have people managed to model this phenomenon with any relatively
simple grammar rules? Do the orderings of specific adjectives vary
between dialects (I'm from the west coast of the U.S. myself)? How do
you guys explain this to ESL students, or is it something they just
have to pick up by hanging around native speakers?

Just for fun, let's look at a three adjective example...

"The cute fuzzy adorable bear" :) Sounds good!
"The cute adorable fuzzy bear" :( No good
"The fuzzy cute adorable bear" :( No good
"The fuzzy adorable cute bear" :( No good
"The adorable cute fuzzy bear" :/ This one kind of sounds okay
"The adorable fuzzy cute bear" :( No good

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Order of adjectives in English
    ... naturally order adjectives. ... In the "fuzzy cute ... bear" example, my brain wants to think of "fuzzy" as an adverb, sort ... "The fuzzy cute adorable bear":(No good ...
    (alt.usage.english)
  • Re: Order of adjectives in English
    ... fact that, without even realizing it, English speakers seem to ... naturally order adjectives. ... In the "fuzzy cute ... bear" example, my brain wants to think of "fuzzy" as an adverb, sort ...
    (alt.usage.english)
  • Re: Order of adjectives in English
    ... fact that, without even realizing it, English speakers seem to ... naturally order adjectives. ... In the "fuzzy cute ... bear" example, my brain wants to think of "fuzzy" as an adverb, sort ...
    (alt.usage.english)