Some examples of adjective order

Opinion Size a silly a a huge small Age Shape Colour Origin Material Purpose young round red English metal man bowl sleeping bag

1. Adjectives of colour, origin, material and purpose usually go in that order. Colou r red A A brown origin Spanish German Venetia n materia l leather glass purpos e riding beer flower noun boot s mug vase

2. Other adjectives usually go before words of colour, origin, material and purpose. It is impossible to give exact rules, but adjectives of size, length and height often come first. The round glass table (NOT the glass round table) A big, modern brick house (NOT a modern, big brick house) Long, flexible steel poles A tall, ancient oak-tree 3. Adjectives which express judgements or attitudes usually come before all others. Examples are lovely, definite, pure, absolute, extreme, perfect, wonderful, silly. A lovely, long, cool drink Who's that silly fat man over there? 4. Numbers usually go before adjectives.

Six large eggs The second big shock First, next and last most often go before one, two, three etc. The first three days My last two jobs." pp. 8-9

He does not mention age, which would normally go after adjectives of size, length and height, but before colour, origin, material and purpose. A big old straw hat. A charming young university student. Thus, a complete list could be: (article) + number + judgement/attitude + size, length, height + age + colour + origin + material + purpose + noun a lovely long black leather coat a valuable Dutch Impressionist painting a rustic old stone holiday cottage

What is the correct order for two or more adjectives?

1. The general order is: opinion, fact:

a nice French car (not a French nice car)

("Opinion" is what you think about something. "Fact" is what is definitely true about something.) 2. The normal order for fact adjectives is size, age, shape, colour, material, origin:

a big, old, square, black, wooden Chinese table

3. Determiners usually come first, even though they are fact adjectives:

articles (a, the) possessives (my, your...) demonstratives (this, that...) quantifiers (some, any, few, many...) numbers (one, two, three)

Here is an example with opinion and fact adjectives: adjectives deter- opinion fact miner age shape two nice noun

colour candles

old round red

When we want to use two colour adjectives, we join them with "and":

Many newspapers are black and white. She was wearing a long, blue and yellow dress.

The rules on this page are for the normal, "natural" order of adjectives. But these rules are not rigid, and you may sometimes wish to change the order for emphasis. Consider the following conversations: Conversation 1 A "I want to buy a round table." B "Do you want a new round table or an old round table?" Conversation 2 A "I want to buy an old table". B "Do you want a round old table or a square old table?" If youre ever in doubt about where to place commas in a string of adjectives, refer to the royal order. Itll be your faithful guide. Whenever in doubt, remember: OPSHACOM! Adjectives fall into categories, and those categories comprise the royal order: Determiner (articles and other limiters: the book, your car) Observation or opinion (a genuine fraud, an interesting book, an expensive watch) Size and Shape (tiny, fat, square) Age (young, old, new) Color (blue, sea-green) Origin (American, Chinese) Material (describing what something is made of: silk, copper, wooden) Qualifier (final adjective, often an integral part of the noun: vacation resort, wedding dress, race car)