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Adjective Order Guide for Learners

The document discusses the order and usage of adjectives in English. It explains that adjectives describing opinion usually come first, followed by size, shape, age, color, etc. It provides examples of common adjective orders and classifications. Specific opinion adjectives only describe certain nouns, like "tasty" for food. Most adjectives come before the noun, while some like "alone" are only used after linking verbs. The document concludes with the general order of adjectives in English.

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DANIEL FELIPE RUIZ ZÚÑIGA
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103 views4 pages

Adjective Order Guide for Learners

The document discusses the order and usage of adjectives in English. It explains that adjectives describing opinion usually come first, followed by size, shape, age, color, etc. It provides examples of common adjective orders and classifications. Specific opinion adjectives only describe certain nouns, like "tasty" for food. Most adjectives come before the noun, while some like "alone" are only used after linking verbs. The document concludes with the general order of adjectives in English.

Uploaded by

DANIEL FELIPE RUIZ ZÚÑIGA
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Professor: Jorge Herrera

English Adjectives
Adjective Order
Adjectives can be used to describe lots of things, from physical size, age, shape, colour,
material, to more abstract things like opinion, origin and purpose.
We can use adjectives together to give a detailed description of something.
Adjectives that express opinions usually come before all others, but it can sometimes
depend on what exactly you want to emphasize.
For example:
"That nice, big, blue bag." (You like the bag.)
"That's a nice blue." (You like the colour.)

Sometimes we use more than one adjective in front of a noun:


He was a nice intelligent young man.
She had a small round black wooden box.

Opinion adjectives:
Some adjectives give a general opinion. We can use these adjectives to describe almost any
noun:

Good bad lovely strange

beautiful nice brilliant excellent

Awful important wonderful nasty

Some adjectives give a specific opinion. We only use these adjectives to describe
particular kinds of noun:
Food: tasty; delicious
Furniture, buildings: comfortable; uncomfortable
People, animals: clever; intelligent; friendly

We usually put a general opinion in front of a specific opinion:


Nice tasty soup.
A nasty uncomfortable armchair
A lovely intelligent animal
Usually we put an adjective that gives an opinion in front of an adjective that is
descriptive:
a nice red dress; a silly old man; those horrible yellow curtains

We often have two adjectives in front of a noun:


a handsome young man; a big black car; that horrible big dog

Sometimes we have three adjectives, but this is unusual:


a nice handsome young man;
a big black American car;
that horrible big fierce dog

It is very unusual to have more than three adjectives.


Adjectives usually come in this order:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

General Specific
Size Shape Age Colour Nationality Material
opinion opinión

We use some adjectives only after a link verb:

Afraid Alive alone Asleep

Content Glad ill Ready

Sorry Sure unable Well

Some of the commonest -ed adjectives are normally used only after a link verb:
annoyed; finished; bored; pleased; thrilled
We say:
Our teacher was ill.
My uncle was very glad when he heard the news.
The policeman seemed to be very annoyed
but we do not say:
We had an ill teacher.
When he heard the news he was a very glad uncle
He seemed to be a very annoyed policeman
A few adjectives are used only in front of a noun:

north northern
countless eventful
south southern
occasional indoor
east eastern
lone outdoor
west western

We say:
He lives in the eastern district.
There were countless problems with the new machinery.
but we do not say:
The district he lives in is eastern
The problems with the new machinery were countless.

Document taken in September 19th from:

http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/english-grammar/adjectives/order-adjectives

http://www.learnenglish.de/grammar/adjectiveorder.html

Exercise:
http://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/elc/studyzone/410/grammar/adjord.htm

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