At last night's town council, the normally rather reserved Cllr Keiran Allsopp-Robson humourously twice referred to ours being "a friendly coach town". Of course, he meant "a coach friendly town". Even during the days when grammar was a specific subject at schools, no one ever taught anyone about the order in which adjectival nouns¹ should be handled in the English language. This is something we just know. It becomes instinctive. Otherwise, it sounds odd, as here.
Cllr Allsopp-Robson did not mean that Rhuthun/Ruthin was a welcoming town where coaches were manufactured or sold. Not like Cryw/Crewe being a railway town.
Neither was he implying that coaches are themselves inherently amicable. Though, on second thoughts, since he once drove them, perhaps that was actually what he was going for.
Thank you councillor for cheering us up!
¹ "Coach friendly" is a compound of one noun and one adjective, together acting as an adjectival noun modifying the main noun, "town".
Neither was he implying that coaches are themselves inherently amicable. Though, on second thoughts, since he once drove them, perhaps that was actually what he was going for.
Thank you councillor for cheering us up!
¹ "Coach friendly" is a compound of one noun and one adjective, together acting as an adjectival noun modifying the main noun, "town".