ADJECTIVE ORDER

AN INTRODUCTION TO ADJECTIVE ORDER

A. Adjective Word Order Explanation

We use adjective to modify nouns. But, sometimes we use two
or more adjectives together to modify one noun. In this case,
we have to know which adjective comes first and which one
comes later. Let's see the following examples.
NORMAL ADJECTIVE

blue book
Adjective

noun (head word)

Notes:
The adjective word order Blue
book consists of one noun and
one adjective: Blue is an
adjective and book is a noun.
Noun here is as head word

COMPLEX ADJECTIVE

a good thin blue book

article

adj (1) adj (2)

adj (3)

noun

Notes:
The adjective word order above
consists of one noun and more
adjective: good (opinion), thin
(size), blue (color) is an adjective
and book is a noun. Noun here is
as head word

Adjective Before Noun

We often use more than one adjective
before the noun:
I like big black dogs.
She was wearing a beautiful long red dress.

What is the correct order for two or

more adjectives?

B. Kinds of Adjective
We usually divide adjective into two parts; one is opinion
adjectives and the latter is fact adjectives.
Adjectives like new, large, round, wooden are fact
adjectives. They give us objective information about
something (age, size etc.). Adjectives like nice, beautiful are
opinion adjectives.
Opinion adjectives usually go before fact adjectives. Let's see
the following tables.
Opinion
Adjectives
a
a
an
a

nice
delicious
intelligent
beautiful

Fact Adjectives
sunny
hot
young
large square wooden

Noun
day
chili sauce
man
chair

OPINION ADJECTIVES

FACT ADJECTIVES

Definition:

Definition:

Opinion Adjective tell us

what you think about
somebody or something.

Fact Adjective give us

factual information about,
age, color, size,
origin,
material, purpose.

Opinion
adjectives
usually go
before
fact
adjectives.
Opinion Adjective such as,
nice, ugly, interesting,
handsome, beautiful, atc.

Sometimes we use two or

more fact adjectives.

Adjectives - word order:

When there are two or more adjectives before a noun
there are some complicated "rules" for the order in
which they should appear. These are the most
important: opinion adjectives come before fact
adjectives fact adjectives appear as follows: size - age
- color - origin - material
Example:
1. a silly old man (an old silly man )
2. a beautiful blue butterfly (a blue beautiful butterfly )
3. an interesting historical film (a historical interesting film)
4. a huge metal box (a metal huge box )
5. a new red dress (a red new dress )
6. little Russian dolls (Russian little dolls )

C.Fact Adjective Order

Sometimes we use two or more fact adjectives to modify one noun.
Very often (but not always) we put fact adjectives in this order.
Size
a

tall
big
a
small
a
an large
a

Age

Color

Origin

Material

young
brown
blue
old
new

white

plastic
wooden
Norwegian

cotton

Noun
man
eyes
bag
table
song
shirt

Adjectives of size and length (big / small / slim / tall / short / long
etc.) usually go before adjectives of shape and width (round / fat /
thin / wide etc.). Let's see the following example.
a large round table
a short fat girl
a long winding road
a small new house

What is the correct order for two or more adjectives?

1. First of all, the general order is:
opinion, fact
a lovely new dress (not a new lovely dress)
a boring French film (not a French boring film)
2. The "normal" order for fact adjectives is
other / size, shape, age, colour / origin / material / purpose
a small 18th-century French coffee table
a rectangular black wooden box
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)
Note that when we want to use two color adjectives, we join them
with "and":
Many newspapers are black and white.
She was wearing a long, blue and yellow dress.

Here are some examples of adjective order:

adjectives
fact adjectives
opinion
determin
adjective
er
other
s

size,
shape,
age,
colour

two

black

ugly
wellknown

origin

material

purpose*

guard
Chinese

small,
18thcentury

French

head
noun

dogs
artist

coffee

table

your

fabulous

new

lovely

pink and
Thai
green

silk

some

black

leather

big black
and
white

this

Spanish

old

my

new
wonderfu
l

15thcentury

*often a noun used as an adjective

car
dress

riding

boots
dog

cheap

an

sports

Arabic

plastic

rain

coat

wooden

fishing

boat

tennis

racket
poem