ORDER OF ADJECTIVES [ADJECTIVE SEQUENCES]

ORDER OF ADJECTIVES

Learn rules and examples for the order of adjectives in English. 

In general, the adjective order in English is:

1: Determiner

2: Observation (Opinion)

3: Size and Shape

4: Age

5: Color

6: Origin

7: Material

8: Qualifier (Purpose)

In English, it is common to use more than one adjective before a noun. For example, “It is a beautiful long new dress.” or “She has bought a square white Japanese cake.” When you use more than one adjective, you have to put them in the right order – order of adjectives.

Learn how to put adjectives in the right order with useful grammar rules and examples.

In general, the adjective order in English is:

DETERMINER

Words that work as articles and other limiters including numbers.

Example: a, an, the, both, either, some, many, my, your, our, their, his, her, five, each, every, this, that…

OBSERVATION

(Opinion)

In general, an opinion adjective explains what you think about something (other people may not agree with you).

Example: good, bad, great, terrible, pretty, lovely, silly, beautiful, horrible, difficult, comfortable/uncomfortable, ugly, awful, strange, delicious, disgusting, tasty, nasty, important, excellent, wonderful, brilliant, funny, interesting, boring.

SIZE AND SHAPE

Adjectives that describe a factual or objective quality of the noun.

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

Example: huge, big, large, tiny, enormous, little, tall, long, gigantic, small, short, minuscule. 

SHAPE

A shape adjective describes the shape of something.

Example: triangular, square, round, flat, rectangular.

AGE

An age adjective (adjective denoting age) tells you how young or old something or someone is.

Example: young, old, new, ancient, six-year-old, antique, youthful, mature, modern, old-fashioned, recent…

COLOR

A color adjective (adjective denoting color), of course, describes the color of something.

Example: red, black, pale, bright, faded, shining, yellow, orange, green, blue, purple, pink, aquamarine…

ORIGIN

De-nominal adjectives denoting source of noun.

An origin adjective describes where something comes from.

Example: French, American, Canadian, Mexican, Greek, Swiss, Spanish, Victorian, Martian…

MATERIAL

De-nominal

adjectives denoting what something is made of.

Example: woollen, wooden, silk, metal, paper, gold, silver, copper, cotton, leather, polyester, nylon, stone, diamond, plastic…

QUALIFIER (PURPOSE)

Final limiter, often regarded as part of the noun.

A purpose adjective describes what something is used for. These adjectives often end with “-ing”.

Example: writing (as in “writing paper”), sleeping (as in “sleeping bag”), roasting (as in “roasting tin”), running (as in “running shoes”).