Talk:Irreversible binomial

Not in My Idiolect

Some of these have no such constraints in my idiolect. For example "girls and boys" and "boys and girls" are completely interchangeable, with no preference, whether used as a mocking term of address for silly grown-ups or for actual children. To me "Ken and Barbie" is more natural than "Barbie and Ken." —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.85.130.130 (talk) 22:46, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

At least as far as "boys and girls" and "girls and boys," I agree. Kostaki mou (talk) 16:07, 27 September 2018 (UTC)

"cannot be reversed"

Obviously, they can, but they "may" not. No doubt they have been for humorous purposes. Kostaki mou (talk) 23:08, 26 September 2018 (UTC)

Knife and fork

I’ve more often heard of ‘fork and knife,’ but anyways, who said these can’t be interchanged because they definitely can and have. Also it appears that a Siamese twin has to have no rhyme or reason (*rimshot*) why the two items can’t be switched, but you have on the list “slip and fall” and that’s just a sequence of events (you slip then fall, you don’t fall then slip) so it shouldn’t be counted as a Siamese twin — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.18.38.178 (talk) 04:12, 18 November 2018 (UTC)

Ernie and Bert / Bert and Ernie

I know that "Bert and Ernie" is common today, but when I was growing up in the 1970s, it was always "Ernie and Bert". There were books and albums that included "Ernie and Bert" in the title, so I know I'm not imagining things or remembering wrong! See https://muppet.fandom.com/wiki/%22Bert_and_Ernie%22_vs._%22Ernie_and_Bert%22 for some discussion of both sides of this issue.

Seansinc (talk) 02:31, 20 May 2020 (UTC)

Non-English languages

I'd assume these show up to a certain degree in some other languages too.

--Special:Contributions/TheSands-12 06:28, 10 March 2021 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by TheSands-12 (talk • contribs)

Doubtful examples

Many of the examples listed in the article are doubtful, either

• because they often are reversed (e.g. "port and startboard" may be somewhat more common than "starboard and port" but not exclusively - see also all the examples above), or
• because they are not commonly used expressions (e.g. "Bootleggers and Baptists" appears to be a phrase coined by one particular author and is by no means "a standard part of the vocabulary of native English speakers"), or
• because the reason for the order of the words is semantic, not a matter of collocation or idiom, as pointed out above in the case of "slip and fall" - other examples include "catch and release" and "dusk till dawn" ("dawn till dusk" is equally possible but has a different meaning, all day as opposed to all night)

Somebody seems to have made it their mission to make these lists as long as possible at the expense of being accurate or meaningful, which seems a pity

--HairyDan (talk) 14:27, 12 November 2021 (UTC)