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. 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

7. Nationality
e.g. Hong Kong, Chinese, English, American,
Canadian, Japanese

8. Religion
e.g. Buddhist, Taoist, Christian, Moslem, pagan,
atheist

9. Material
e.g. wood, plastic, metal, ceramic, paper, silk
 10. Noun used as an adjective
e.g. campus (as in 'campus activities')

Style:
Although it is possible to write a sentence that uses all the categories; e.g. 'my beautiful,
long, curving, new, pink, western, Christian, silk wedding dress', it is bad style as it is too
long. Try to use less than five adjectives in a single list. Therefore you could say "Have
you seen my beautiful new cream silk wedding dress? It's long and curving, and is in
western Christian style."

How to remember the order

You can use the 'Roman room' memorisation technique. This involves remembering a
place that you know well, such as your home, and imagining walking through it, looking
at things.

11. Imagine that you arrive at the door of your home.

On the door is the letter 'A', and you are greeted by
someone who lives there. This helps you to
remember the article 'A' or the determiner(s); e.g.
my Mother's.
12. Imagine that you are happy to see each other. This
helps you to remember the opinion adjective.
13. Imagine the size of your home: is it big, small, or
long? This helps you to remember the size
adjectives.
14. Imagine that you go into your home and you see an
object. Remember the shape of the object.
15. Now imagine that you walk around your home; e.g.
towards your room. Think of another object further
from the door. Think of the age of that object; e.g.
new or old.
16. Move on to another object, this time a colourful
one. Remember what colour it is.
17. Move on to another object. This object should
remind you of a foreign place; e.g. a picture of
somewhere in China, or a souvenir from a holiday
abroad. This is to help you remember nationality.
18. Next imagine moving to another object, this time a
religious one. Maybe you have a place for
worshipping your ancestors, or a statue of Buddha.
19. Next move to another object. This should be special
because it is made of one material; e.g. a crystal
ornament or a wooden statue.
20. Finally move to a place where there is an object that
is described with 2 words, and the first is a noun;
e.g. a book shelf. Imagine that this is the end of your
journey around your flat.