Adjective Order

Introduction
In English, it is common to use more than one adjective before a noun for example, He's a
silly young fool, or She's a smart, energetic woman. When you use more than one
adjective, you have to put them in the right order, according to type. This page will explain
the different types of adjectives and the correct order for them.

1. The basic types of adjectives

An opinion adjective explains what you think about something

Opinio
(other people may not agree with you).
n
For example: silly, beautiful, horrible, difficult

A size adjective, of course, tells you how big or small something is.
Size
For example: large, tiny, enormous, little

An age adjective tells you how young or old something or someone

Age is.
For example: ancient, new, young, old

A shape adjective describes the shape of something.

Shape
For example: square, round, flat, rectangular

A colour adjective, of course, describes the colour of something.

Colour
For example: blue, pink, reddish, grey

An origin adjective describes where something comes from.

Origin
For example: French, lunar, American, eastern, Greek

Materi A material adjective describes what something is made from.

al For example: wooden, metal, cotton, paper

A purpose adjective describes what something is used for. These

Purpo adjectives often end with -ing.
se For example: sleeping (as in sleeping bag), roasting (as in
roasting tin)

2. Some examples of adjective order

DET OPINION SIZE AGE SHAPE/ HEIGHT/ COLOR ORIGIN MATERIA PURPOS NOUN
. WEIGHT LENGTH L E

a silly young English man

a huge round metal bowl

a small red sleepin bag

g

a nice large circular red Chinese wood

a cool tall square Blue Greek brick

a beautiful little round black Italian silver

a ugly tiny square White American gold

a famous huge pink french plastic

a cute small gold Turkish rubber

a delicious short brown glass

a kind big green Japanese metal

wonderfu long yellow Mexican leather bag

l
 LETS PRACTICE

Exercise 1: Please correct the sentences. If it doesnt need correction write OK.

1. Ms. Lane has an old wood desk in her office.

Ok
2. She up the flowers in a blue glass vase.
Ok
3. Ken is an young honest man.
Ken is an honest young man.
4. Harry gave me a wonderful small Greek black box as a birthday present.
Harry gave me a wonderful small black Greek box as a birthday present.
5. Alice touched the cold blue river.
Ok.
6. Pizza is my favorite food Italian.
Pizza is my favorite Italian food.
7. Mosquitos are black tiny insects.
Mosquitos are tiny black insects.
8. Tony has a noisy red car.
Ok.
Exercise 2: Complete the sentences with your own adjectives.
1. My dog, Rover, is a cute old dog.
2. We bought a blue American blanket.
3. Alice has old gold earrings.
4. Jack lives in a large white brick house.
5. Sally picked a beautiful small red flower.
Exercise 3: Write a sentence using all the words.
1. (glass, wine) Yesterday I drank a wine glass with my best friend.
2. (delicious, Thai) Ill bring delicious Thai food.
3. (red, small) There are a lot of small red fishes.
4. (old, big, brown) I have a big old brown jacket.
5. (long, black, beautiful) Some people use to drive a beautiful long black car.
6. (wonderful, old, wooden) In my hose there is a wonderful old wooden chair.
7. (Chinese, famous, old) My cousin met the last month a famous old Chinese actor.
8. (narrow, dirt) Next to the school there is a dirt narrow passageway.