Useless knowledge

[Seeker]

Have you ever wondered why flip-flop sounds correct but flop flip does not?
How about:
pong ping
dong ding
chat chit

It's called ablaut reduplication and it says that "i" will always lead "o" if the vowels are switched in similar words, if there's an "a" as well, then the order will be i, a, o

bish, bash bosh
ding, dang, dong
Not a taught rule but everyone follows it.

source: from a reddit thread linking to this: https://www.rd.com/culture/ablaut-reduplication/

[daktulos]

The one which always amazes me is the order of adjectives:

opinion, size, age, shape, colour, origin, material, purpose

So you can have a "lovely big old round red Indian ceramic cooking pot" but it has to be in that order, you can't have a "red big pot". No one taught that one, either, as far as I remember ... it must be horrid to learn English as a second language.

Edit: "big, bad wolf" is an exception, but it's because it's obeying your rule instead.