Adjective Order

Select the correct order of the adjectives in these sentences.

He invited that ___ lady to dinner.
young beautiful
beautiful young

These are ___ products.

excellent agricultural
agricultural excellent

Why can't you wear your ___ dress tonight?

pink silk
silk pink

The boy needs ___ balls for that activity

ten cotton small
ten small cotton

I've booked that ___ table on the corner.

big square
square big

Mary's husband gave her a ___ vase.

porcelain French
French porcelain

He broke Mother's ___ milk jug.

green old
old green

My brother wants to meet that ___ girl.

tall Japanese
Japanese tall

What do you plan to do with these ___ bottles?

empty wine
wine empty

That ___ woman needs help.

old foreign
foreign old

There are two ___ dresses in her closet.

red beautiful
beautiful red

Tom never lets his sister drive his ___ car.

sports expensive
expensive sports

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

She sells ___ cookies.

delicious chocolate
chocolate delicious

The room was decorated with ___ balloons.

red big
big red

Adjective Word Order

Adjectives are words that modify nouns and pronouns. To modify means to
change a little. Adjectives change pronouns and nouns by telling more about
them. Telling more about a pronoun or noun makes sentences more interesting
to read.
Compare the following two sentences.
I have a car.

I have a shiny new car.

The first sentence is kind of boring. The writer has not told us anything about
the car. The second sentence, however, is more interesting. We now know that
the writer has a shiny new car. We can imagine that the writer is excited about
his car.
When using more than one adjective in a sentence you should use the
following word order.
Opinion

Size

Age

Color

Nationality Material

ugly

short

new

red

American

wool

cheap

small

used

yellow

Korean

wood

boring

fat

old

brown

Japanese

plastic

Opinion adjectives are used to express your opinion. Keep in mind that your
opinion may not be the same as someone else's opinion. For example, you and
a friend see the same movie. You liked the movie and describe the movie as
exciting, but your friend didn't like the movie and says that is was boring. You
are both correct, you just have different opinions about the same movie.
Nationalities are always capitalized. Chinese, Mexican, Brazilian

Descriptive adjectives usually occur in the following order

adjectives

Evaluation/Opinion

Appearance

Age

Color

size/measure

Origin
geographical

good

big

old

red

French

bad

small

young

green

Mexican

ugly

low

new

blue

Japanese

interesting

high

antique

striped

material

fascinating

heavy

ancient

dark blue

ceramic

intelligent

shape

deep purple

cotton

pretty

triangular

pink

wooden

unsightly

square

brown

brass

condition
chipped
broken
rotten

Variations do occur within the category "appearance".

Usually the order is size, shape, condition:
A tall, round, out-of -condition man sat breathing heavily on the park bench.
or
A tall, out-of -condition, round, man sat breathing heavily on the park bench.
or
A out-of -condition, tall, round, man sat breathing heavily on the park bench.

Generally, speakers do not use more than three or four adjectives before a noun:
*The intelligent, little, young, black, French poodle sat next to his owner in a Paris cafe.
* so many adjectives!

Select the correct word order.

example

1. An

angry, little, brown

brown, angry, little

golpher complained about a misdirected golf ball.

2. A (n)
restaurant .

sports car was parked in front of the

Italian, beautiful, new

beautiful, new, Italian

3. A
barber shop.

barber pole was next to the front door of the

big, red and white, striped

big, striped, red and white

4. A

boy was chopping wood in the backyard.

strong, little, young

little, strong, young

5. She wore her

pumps.

high-heeled, black, suede

high-heeled, suede, black

6. You can't take your

"pump" style shoe

knife with you on an airplane .

Swiss, army, red

red, Swiss, army

7. We put a(n)

ugly, tiny, artificial

artificial, tiny, ugly

tree in the corner of their office.

8. My uncle bought a

TV.

high-definition,brand-new, plasma
brand-new, high-definition, plasma

9. She offered me tea in a

cup .

ceramic, small, chipped,

small, chipped, ceramic

10. The elf lived in a

charming, little, mushroom

charming, mushroom, little

house in the forest.