Grammatically speaking, opinion goes before size, i.e. opinion, size, age, shape, color, origin, material, purpose. However, I saw this example in Practical English Usage, third edition, page 12:
a big beautiful garden
Or you have probably heard the known expression Big Beautiful Woman (BBW).
What am I missing?
Answer
It's worth copying in a line quoted by the top answer when this was asked about on ELU...
"Unfortunately, the rules for adjective order are very complicated, and different grammars disagree about the details".
I'd also have to say that "opinion" is a very slippery (not to say subjective) word category. If beautiful is an "opinion" word then the same must surely be true of ugly. But apparently the rules are different...
In short, what OP is missing is that "order of adjectives" is a complex issue. But note that doesn't mean "different grammars" disagree about what's correct (these days, "correct" just means "most common").
The reality is actual native speakers tend to be consistent about the order they prefer for any given set of adjectives, but grammarians/linguists struggle to describe/define those preferences in a way that would enable non-native speakers to predict what form the natives will choose (i.e. - formal "rules").
But OP should also note that not all sets of adjectives will be consistently sequenced the same way by all native speakers (a point I hope the above two charts encapsulate, as well as showing change over time).
As a native speaker, I know instinctively which of these sequences is "normal", but the rules don't help...
big fat ugly woman 52 results in Google Books
big ugly fat woman 1 result
ugly big fat woman no results
ugly fat big woman no results
fat big ugly woman no results
fat ugly big woman no results
In short, it's probably worth learners taking note of the basic sequence...
1: number
2: judgement/attitude
3: size, length, height
4: age
5: colour
6: origin
7: material
8: purpose
...but you've only got to look at the comments against the ELU question and answers to see that it doesn't work in every case (and things get particularly imprecise around category #2 above).
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