♔ ADJECTIVE ORDER

key_small Adjectives in English cannot be written in any order.  There are rules, so you should use SOME order. Mind you, we usually use no more than three adjectives preceding a noun, but it is possible to get four or even more and can be grammatically correct.  Notice also that the adjectives are not separated by commas.

 

Examples:

The big black dog ate my sandwich.

I like that nice blue American car.

 

The order of the adjectives is usually as followed:

1.  Determiner -  articles and other limiters:

Example:  a, an, her, five, many, much several etc.

2.  Opinion -  An opinion adjective explains what you think about something (other people may not agree with you).

Example:  pretty, ugly, smart, cheap etc.

3.  Size -  A size adjective, of course, tells you how big or small something is.

Example:  big, fat, thin, tall, large, small etc.

4.  Age -  An age adjective tells you how young or old something or someone is.

Example:  old, young, a year, a week, new etc.

5.  Shape -  A shape adjective describes the shape of something.

Example:  circle, square, tall, short etc.

6.  Colour -  A colour adjective, of course, describes the colour of something.

Example:  yellow, green, pink etc.

7.  Origin -  An origin adjective describes where something comes from.

Example:  American, English, Asian, Middle Eastern, African, European, Chinese etc.

8.  Material -  A material adjective describes what something is made from.

Example:  cotton, wood, plastic, cloth, glass, gold etc.

9.  Purpose/Qualifier -  A purpose adjective describes what something is used for. These adjectives often end with "-ing".

Example:  sleeping (as in "sleeping bag")

10.  Noun -  The noun that the adjectives are describing.

Example:  computer, island, country, house, etc.

 

DETERMINEROPINIONSIZEAGESHAPECOLOURORIGINMATERIALPURPOSENOUN
A SILLY OLD ENGLISH WOMAN
A BIG ROUND PLASTIC BOWL
A SMALL BLUE SLEEPING BAG
HER EXPENSIVE ANTIQUE SILVER RING
A DELICIOUS INDIAN CURRY

 

After reading this lesson you may want to do some exercises, then click HERE.