Adjectives before or after classifiers in Chinese

Question

So far, I have learned that adjectives come after classifiers and before nouns.

For example,

一只黑猫:a black cat

During my studies, I came across this sentence:

他在自己家附近的一间办公室里工作。

In this sentence, 自己家附近 acts as an adjective for 办公室, but has come before the classifier 间.

Is 他在一间自己家附近的办公室里工作。 wrong?

I have also seen 这是简单的一天。 as another example.

Would 这是一简单的天。 be wrong?

Answer 1

I think there are a couple of issues here, because all modifiers and all "nouns" are not treated the same.

First, the usual order is (number/determiner)(measure word)(adjective)(noun). If there is a relative clause ending in 的 used as a modifier, it can be placed either before the number slot or before the adjective slot. Therefore you can say either:

那个戴眼镜的很高的人,or

戴眼镜的很高的那个人

In a given phrase, one order or the other may be clearer or allow you to omit or at least not repeat 的. Repeating 的 is often awkward or bad style.

I have also seen 这是简单的一天。 as another example.

Would 这是一简单的天。 be wrong?

The problem with 天 is that it is both a free noun meaning "sky" and a measure word meaning "day." Its meaning is also vaguer than a translation as "day" might indicate. In the quoted example 天 in the meaning of "day" is "fortified" by adding 一 before it and forming a two-syllable word to allow the two syllables to be used as a free noun together in this meaning. The placement of 简单的 is then unremarkable. If you replaced 一天 with 日子, I believe you would say: 一个简单的日子

Answer 2

There is no mistake that an adjective can be added before a noun to modify the noun. For example, "我今天吃了好几碗白米饭", "明天将是一个下雨的天"

Answer 3

他在一间自己家附近的办公室里工作. <--right

这是一简单的天 <--wrong

put it in another way, could be这是简单的一天

Answer 4

You are very perspicacious!

他在家附近工作。
他在一间办公室里工作。
他在家附近的一间办公室里工作。
他在一间家附近办公室里工作。

在 ... 里 is a locator, tells us where something happens.
家附近 neighbourhood tells us where the office is.
So we have two locators: one locates the office (家附近的), the other locates the work (办公室里)

The location of the office and the work coincide, but neighbourhood is less specific than office