Name

Date
Order of Adjectives
• In English, it is common to use more than one adjective to describe a noun. These
adjectives must be used in the proper order.
Example: Here is a beautiful, red, cloth flag.
Why does beautiful come before red?
Why does red come before cloth?
• Understanding the proper order of adjectives takes practice. Use the following table to practice
using the proper order of adjectives in the following sentences.
Number Opinion Size Age Shape Color Origin Material Purpose Noun
small round German
red sleeping
generous old man
four metal

Directions: Choose the correct order of adjectives in the following sentences.

1) The woman is wearing a ______
dress. 9) I am going to wear my ________ tie
A) yellow long to the wedding.
B) long yellow A) big cotton blue
B) blue big cotton
2) He is a ________ man. C) big blue cotton
A) tall thin
B) thin tall 10) Please recycle those ________ bottles.
A) three water empty
3) The company makes ________
B) three empty water
products.
C) water empty three
A) excellent farming
B) farming excellent 11) She packed her clothes in a ________
4) James recently departed on a box.
________ trip. A) green flimsy cardboard
A) camping long B) flimsy green cardboard
B) long camping C) cardboard flimsy green

5) I love eating ________ strawberries. 12) Their dog is a ________ shepherd.

A) red big A) brown big German
B) big red B) big brown German
C) German big brown
6) The ________ woman did well on the
test. 13) I am drinking from a ________ cup.
A) intelligent young A) small English tea
B) young intelligent B) tea small English
C) English small tea
7) The ticket costs ________ dollars.
A) ten US 14) My ________ teacher talks for hours!
B) US ten A) philosophy old boring
B) old philosophy boring
8) The scientists have found a ________ C) boring philosophy old
cure for the disease. D) boring old philosophy
A) new great
B) great new

Directions: Now write two of your own sentences using more than one adjective to describe a noun.
1) Felipe plays the electric from small.
2) He dancing in the night later of the rain.
Position and order of adverbs and adjectives
1 Tick (✔) the correct sentence.
1 a Life developed on land quickly in the last
million years. b Life developed quickly on land in
the last million years.

2 a Strange green creatures have recently been found on

the moon. b Green strange creatures have recently been
found on the moon.

3 a It’s a fast new

American aeroplane. b It’s
a new fast American
aeroplane.

4 a It’s a beautiful
yellow small fish. b
It’s a beautiful small
yellow fish.
5 a Dinosaurs disappeared suddenly from Earth around 65 million
years ago. b Dinosaurs disappeared from Earth suddenly around
65 million years ago.

6 a Our submersible was a grey big

round thing. b Our submersible was
a big round grey thing.

2 Complete the sentences with the adjectives in brackets.

1 The fish was an enormous, round
cartoon. (orange, round, enormous)
2 It was an extremely ugly , old
3 I had never seen such an amazing
4 It was discovered by an unknown
5 The car was a comfortable , new
silver)
, orange thing that looked like something out of a
, grey , British boat. (British, grey, old, ugly)
, small , colourful animal. (amazing, colourful, small)
, young , French explorer. (French, young, unknown)
, silver , German model. (comfortable, German, new,

3 Are these sentences grammatically correct (✔) or incorrect (✘)? Write correct sentences.
1 Humans appeared suddenly in Africa about two million years ago.
Humans appeared suddenly about two million years ago in Africa
2 It’s a square, huge, grey machine.
It’s a huge, square, grey , machine.
3 I’ve just seen a fantastic, tiny, blue fish.
OK
4 She has a Spanish, lovely, old map.
She has a lovely old Spanish map
5 The Earth rotates at the Equator most quickly.
The Earth rotates most quickly at the Equator.
1. We wanted a grey metal (grey / a / metal) table.
2. They bought a new red (red / a / new) car.
3. She went home and sat on her comfortable old wooden (comfortable / her / wooden / old)
bed.
4. He bought a fabulous woollen British (woollen / a / British / fabulous) suit.
5. They have black Dutch (Dutch / black) bicycles.
6. He wants some really delicious French (some / French / delicious / really)
cheese.
7. A young pretty (young / a / pretty) girl walked into the room.
8. He has interesting a lot of old (a lot of / old / interesting) books.
9. She bought a new red (plastic / red / a / new) plastic lunchbox.
10. He is looking for a stylish back leather (leather / stylish / a /black) bag.
11. She dropped the beautiful old (old / beautiful / the) plate and it smashed.
12. I want an amazing silk green (silk / green / an / amazing) dress.
13. She drank hot black Italian (Italian / black / hot) coffee.
14. He saw an old French writing (French / writing / old / an) desk.
15. They stayed in a cute little (little / a / cute) cottage.
16. I visited a spooky ancient German (ancient / a / spooky / German) castle.
17. He has a beautiful old silver (silver / old / beautiful / a) ring.
18. We ate some round green English (green / English / round / some) apples.
19. I need a comfortable computer (computer / comfortable / a) desk.
20. They went on holiday to a beautiful small wooden (small / wooden / a / beautiful) cabin.