The syntax of heraldic descriptions also deserves a brief mention. The mode of blazon follows certain strict conventions, some of which are common to other types of legal documents, as, for instance, a very sparse use of punctuation. The most notable syntactic peculiarity of blazon, which it undoubtedly owes to the French influence, is post-modification of nouns: adjectives follow the nouns they qualify. If there are several post-modifying adjectives, referring to one noun, the name of the tincture comes last. Bearing this in mind and remembering some of the basic terms discussed earlier, we can attempt to decipher the description of a coat of arms belonging to the City of Coventry:

Arms: Per pale gules and vert, an elephant statant and on his back a castle triple-towered and domed Or.  Crest: On a wreath of the colours, A cat Statant guardant proper.  Supporters: On the dexter side an eagle, wings elevated and addorsed, sable, langued and legged gules, and on the sinister side a phoenix, wings elevated and addorsed, Or, langued gules, the flames proper.

The blazon of the arms, i.e., of the actual shield, starts with the description of the field of the shield per pale gules and vert – the field divided by a vertical line drawn down the centre of the shield, with one part of the shield red and the other green. The elephant is statant, standing with all its feet on the ground. The animal and the castle on its back are coloured gold. The crest (object shown on top of the helmet) comprises a wreath composed of the principal metal and colour in the coat (gold and red), above which is a cat with all four paws on the ground, full-faced, in its natural colour. Supporters (figures placed on either side of a shield) represent, on the right (the view is left-hand), an eagle with wings raised above the head and placed back to back with respect to each other, coloured black, with its tongue and legs red, and on the left a phoenix with wings in the same position, coloured gold with a red tongue and the flames in their natural colour. 

This windy translation into everyday English shows certain advantages of the use of technical expressions with the help of which the blazon can be compressed into a very tight and accurate definition.