Adjective Order

Adjectives cannot be written in any order. There are rules, so you

should use the following order:
1. Determiner or article
Determiners e.g. this, that, these, those, my, mine, your, yours, him,
his, her, hers, they, their, Sam's ; or
Articles - a, an, the
2. Opinion adjective
e.g. polite, fun, cute, difficult, hard-working
3. Size, including adjectives, comparatives and superlatives
height; e.g. tall, short, high, low; taller, tallest
width; e.g. wide, narrow, thin, slim; wider, widest
length; e.g. long, short; longer, longest
volume; e.g. fat, huge; fatter, fattest
4. Shape
e.g. circular, oval, triangular, square, 5-sided, hexagonal, irregular
5. Age
e.g. new, young, adolescent, teenage, middle-aged, old, ancient
6. Temperature: Hot, cold, warm, air-conditioned, humid.
7. Colour
e.g. red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, white, grey, black, black
and white, light blue, dark red, pale blue, reddish brown, off-white,
bright green, warm yellow
8. Nationality
e.g. Hong Kong, Chinese, English, American, Canadian, Japanese

9. Religion
e.g. Buddhist, Taoist, Christian, Moslem, pagan, atheist
10. Material
e.g. wood, plastic, metal, ceramic, paper, silk
11. Noun used as an adjective
e.g. campus (as in 'campus activities')
12. The noun that the adjectives are describing.
How to remember the order

Very

Value

Soon

Size

Shall

Shape

Age

Train

Temperature

Come

Color

Or

Origin (Nationality, Religion)

Move

Materila

Correct the order of the adjectives and nouns in the following

sentences, then click the 'See Answer' buttons to see the correct noun
phrases:
1. Age, colour, determiner or article, material, nationality, noun
used as an adjective, opinion, religion, shape, main noun, size.
2. desk office big ugly an wooden brown
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3. hair long black straight my sister's

4. photograph black white and oval a family historic
5. vase jade Ming beautiful a antique little green
6. computer laptop high-tech brand-new deep university's blue my

4. He invited that ___ lady to dinner.

young beautiful
beautiful young
5. These are ___ products.
excellent agricultural
agricultural excellent
6. Why can't you wear your ___ dress tonight?
pink silk
silk pink
7. The boy needs ___ balls for that activity
ten cotton small
ten small cotton
8. I've booked that ___ table on the corner.
big square
square big
9. Mary's husband gave her a ___ vase.
porcelain French
French porcelain
10.

He broke Mother's ___ milk jug.

green old
old green

11.

My brother wants to meet that ___ girl.

tall Japanese
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Japanese tall
12.

What do you plan to do with these ___ bottles?

empty wine
wine empty

13.

That ___ woman needs help.

old foreign
foreign old

14.

There are two ___ dresses in her closet.

red beautiful
beautiful red

15.

Tom never lets his sister drive his ___ car.

sports expensive
expensive sports

16.

When traveling to Peru, make sure you visit the ___ ruins.
ancient Inca
Inca ancient

17.

She sells ___ cookies.

delicious chocolate
chocolate delicious

18.

The room was decorated with ___ balloons.

red big
big red

EXERCISES on ADVERBS: POSITION IN A SENTENCE

1. Rewrite each of the following sentences, placing the adverb of
frequency given in brackets in the middle position of the main clause.
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For example:
She is late for work. (rarely)
She is rarely late for work.
We visit him on Sundays. (sometimes)
We sometimes visit him on Sundays.
I have read that book before. (never)
I have never read that book before.
Yes, I do. (usually)
Yes, I usually do.
1. I had wanted to see the ocean. (always)
2. They do their homework. (frequently)
3. She is very friendly. (usually)
4. They have the opportunity to travel. (seldom)
5. I am at home in the mornings. (generally)
6. He has always done his assigneement. (always)
7. We were given free transportation to the school. (frequently)
8. Birds often return to the place where they were born to build their
nests. (often)
9. Albatrosses are seen close to shore. (seldom)
10. We would. (never)
11. They follow the news. (rarely)
12. Maple wood is used to make violins. (sometimes)
2. Rewrite each of the following sentences, placing the adverb of
frequency given in brackets in the middle position of the main clause.
For example:
Have you visited New York? (ever)
Have you ever visited New York?
I do not go to the library on the weekend. (always)
I do not always go to the library on the weekend.
1. He did not arrive on time. (ever)
2. Do you visit Boston? (often)
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3. Are they surprised at the results? (frequently)

4. The children do not follow our instructions. (always)
5. Do you wonder what will happen next? (sometimes)
6. Did they find the missing information? (ever)
7. We do not stay out after dark. (usually)
8. The facts are not known. (generally)
3. For each of the following sentences, place the adverbs given in
brackets in their most usual positions in the sentence. Place connecting
adverbs in the beginning position, place adverbs of frequency in the
middle position, and place adverbs of manner and adverbs of time in
the end position. Adverbs of manner should precede adverbs of time.
For example:
They left. (early, usually)
They usually left early.
We proceeded. (cautiously, therefore)
Therefore, we proceeded cautiously.
We will review our options. (tomorrow, carefully)
We will review our options carefully tomorrow.
1. We usually pick the flowers carefully. (carefully, usually)
2. She rarely answers correctly. (correctly, rarely)
3. He is seldom wrong however. (however, seldom)
4. therefore We will attend the concert. (therefore, tonight)
5. nevertheless We found the hotel easily. (easily, nevertheless)
6. They left quietly this morning . (quietly, this morning)
7. furthermore, she always wins first prize. (always, furthermore)
8. He often finished late. (late, often)
9. consequently , We quickly reached the station. (quickly,
consequently)
10. You never speak loudly. (loudly, never)
11. We would have gone to the beach. (otherwise, yesterday)
12. They worked. (quickly, today)
13. I want to analyze the book. (carefully, sometime)
14. We arrive. (early, sometimes)
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4. The following sentences do not contain verbs of motion. Complete

each sentence by placing the adverbs and adverb phrases given in
brackets in the end position, in the following order:
Adverb of Manner
Adverb of Location
Adverb of Time
Adverb of Purpose
For example:
The tickets sold. (at the box office, quickly, this afternoon)
The tickets sold quickly at the box office this afternoon.
I bought some film. (to photograph the parade, at the store,
yesterday)
I bought some film at the store yesterday to photograph the parade.
1. We ate. (at the restaurant, well, yesterday evening)
2. They will be. (next month, on business, in France)
3. The children whispered. (on Christmas Eve, excitedly, in front of
the tree)
4. We hung the picture. (on the wall, carefully)
5. The birds twittered. (this morning, outside the window, loudly)
6. The boys and girls waited. (for the parade to pass by, impatiently)
7. We slept. (all afternoon, on the grass, soundly)
8. The choir sang. (last week, beautifully, at the competition)
9. We watched the skaters. (to determine who might win the
competition, avidly, this morning)
10. The moon shone. (over the water, long after the sun had set,
brilliantly)
5. For each of the following sentences, paying attention to whether or
not the sentence contains a verb of motion, place the adverbs and
adverb phrases given in brackets in the correct order in the end
position of the sentence. For example:
He lived. (for six years, happily, in Copenhagen)
He lived happily in Copenhagen for six years.
They returned. (from Holland, last week, unexpectedly)
They returned from Holland unexpectedly last week.
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1. They stood. (at the bus stop, for twenty minutes, patiently)
2. We arrived. (here, last night, on foot)
3. The young child walked. (by herself, this morning, to school)
4. They were waiting. (at seven o'clock, eagerly, outside the
fairgrounds)
5. She arrived. (in a black limousine, at the hotel)
6. Chickadees build their nests. (in dense evergreens, in the early
spring, secretively)
7. The waves crashed. (against the shore, loudly)
8. I walked. (in the rain, to work, yesterday)
9. He sat. (until the announcements were finished, on the edge of his
chair, expectantly)
10. We left. (this morning, home, in a hurry)
11. She went. (by bus, downtown, today)
12. They talked. (for an hour, animatedly, on the front lawn)
6. For each of the following sentences, fill in the blank with is or are,
as appropriate. For example:
Here __ one of the computations.
Here is one of the computations.
There ___ all of the results.
There are all of the results.
1. There _______ his brother and sister.
2. Here _______ the news.
3. There _______ several of her classmates.
4. Here _______ both of the disks.
5. There _______ a pair of pliers.
6. Here _______ a few chocolates.
7. Here _______ a box of eggs.
8. There _______ two of the books.
9. Here _______ another of the magazines.
10. Here _______ some of the answers.
ii. There _______ one of his brothers.
12. Here _______ the essays.
7. Rewrite the following sentences, replacing the underlined phrases
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with personal pronouns, and changing the word order as necessary.

For example:
Over the treetops sailed the kite.
Over the treetops it sailed.
Here comes our teacher.
Here he comes.
1. Up the stairs dashed the reporter.
2. Onto the stage glided the ballerina.
3. Here is the butter.
4. There go the geese.
5. To and fro rode the girl on the horse.
6. Here come the children.
7. High in the heavens shone the lights of a million stars.
8. There goes the train.
9. Into the hotel darted the boy.
10. Here are your keys.
11. Over the grass rolled the ball.
12. There is my aunt.
8. The following sentences are incorrect, because each contains a
double negative. Each sentence can be corrected by omitting or
altering one of the negative expressions. Write two corrected versions
for each sentence. For example:
We have not got no sugar.
We have got no sugar.
or We have not got any sugar.
I have never seen nothing like it before.
I have seen nothing like it before.
or I have never seen anything like it before.
1. He does not need no advice.
2. We never go nowhere interesting.
3. I did not get none of the answers right.
4. She does not know nothing.
5. We had not met neither of the boys before.
6. They did not do no harm.
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7. He never speaks to nobody.

8. You do not have no reason to behave like that.
9. I do not know nothing about it.
10. I do not have no time for such things.
9. For each of the following sentences, add the negative expression
shown in brackets at the beginning of the sentence, and make any
other changes that are necessary. For example:
I had reached home when I remembered the message. (hardly)
Hardly had I reached home when I remembered the message.
We had the opportunity to do whatever we wanted. (seldom)
Seldom did we have the opportunity to do whatever we wanted.
1. We had entered the room when the telephone rang. (scarcely)
2. I have seen a more beautiful ballet than that one. (never)
3. We realized that a dangerous stretch of road lay ahead of us. (little)
4. I have worked as hard as I could. (never before)
5. A writer can express his exact feelings in words. (rarely)
6. We perceive everything that is around us. (hardly ever)
7. One can find a more striking example of erosion than the Grand
Canyon. (nowhere)
8. They guessed what was about to happen. (little)
9. I am entirely satisfied with my situation. (seldom)
10. One comprehends a complex situation immediately. (rarely)

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