T.

Jiew Panita

adjectives: word order

Pre-test: Let’s try first!

1. . .................................................................................................................... car.
(new / a / black)
2. . .................................................................................................................... book.
(old / interesting /an)
3. .................................................................................................................... food.
(French / delicious)
4. .................................................................................................................... cat.
(a / old / silly)
5. ....................................................................................................................
(American / a (n) / red / truck / big)
6. ....................................................................................................................
(red / beautiful / shoes)
7. .................................................................................................................... girl.
(a / Japanese / tall)
8. ....................................................................................................................
(delicious / round / a / cake / chocolate)
9. . .................................................................................................................... oranges.
(some / big / great)
10. .................................................................................................................... guitar.
(a / new / electronic)

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T. Jiew Panita

adjectives: word order

a Sometimes we use two or more adjectives together:

- Tom lives in a nice new house.
- In the kitchen there was a beautiful large round wooden table.
Adjectives like new/large/round/wooden are fact adjective. They give us objective
information about something (age, size, color, etc.) Adjectives like nice/beautiful are opinion
adjectives. They tell us what someone thinks of something.
Opinion adjective usually go before fact adjectives:

determiner opinion fact noun

a nice sunny day
delicious hot soup
an intelligent young man
a beautiful large round wooden table

b Sometimes there are two or more fact adjectives. Very often (but not always) we put
fact adjectives in this order:

1 2 3 4 5
what
how how what where is it Noun
big? old? color? from? made
of?

a tall young man (1 - 2) a large wooden table (1 - 5)

big blue eyes (1 - 3) an old Russian song (2 - 4)
a small black plastic bag (1 - 3 - 5) an old white cotton shirt (2 - 3 -5)

Adjectives of size and length (big/small/tall/short/long etc.) usually go before adjectives of

shape and width (round/fat/thin/slim/wide etc.):

- a large round table

- a tall thin girl

- a long narrow street

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T. Jiew Panita

adjectives: word order

c We also use adjectives after some verbs, especially be/get/become:
- Are you tired? - I’m getting hungry.
- Be careful!
We also use adjectives after: feel/smell/taste/sound/seem/look:
- Do you feel tired? - The dinner smells good.
- This tea tastes a bit strange. - Your friend seems very nice.
- Tom sounded angry when I spoke to him on the phone.
But after other verbs you must use an adverb:
- Drive carefully! (not ‘drive careful’)
- Susan plays the piano very well. (not ‘plays … very good’)
- Tom shouted at me angrily. (not ‘shouted … angry’)
‘Look’ We use an adjective after look when it means ‘seem’:
- Tom looked sad when I saw him.
But after ‘look at’ we use an adverb:
- Tom looked at me sadly. (not ‘looked at me sad’)

Exercise 1: Put the adjective in brackets in the correct position.

Examples: a beautiful table (wooden round)
a beautiful round wooden table
1. an unusual ring (gold) ........................................................................................................................
2. an old lady (nice) ........................................................................................................................
3. a good-looking man (young) ........................................................................................................................
4. a modern house (attractive) ........................................................................................................................
5. black gloves (leather) ........................................................................................................................
6. an American film (old) ........................................................................................................................
7. a large nose (red) ........................................................................................................................
8. a sunny day (lovely) ........................................................................................................................
9. a hot bath (nice) ........................................................................................................................
10. an ugly dress (orange) ........................................................................................................................
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T. Jiew Panita

adjectives: word order

Exercise 2: Put the adjective in brackets in the correct position.
Examples: a beautiful table (wooden round)
a beautiful round wooden table
11. a red car (old / little) ........................................................................................................................
12. a metal box (black / small) ........................................................................................................................
13. a long face (thin) ........................................................................................................................
14. a wide avenue (long) ........................................................................................................................
15. a big cat (fat / black) ........................................................................................................................
16. a little village (old / lovely) ........................................................................................................................
17. long hair (fair / beautiful) ........................................................................................................................
18. an old painting (interesting / French) ........................................................................................................................
19. round wooden table ........................................................................................................................
(luxury /Chinese / large) ........................................................................................................................

20. intelligent robot ........................................................................................................................

(lovely / metal / Japanese / tiny) ........................................................................................................................

Exercise 3: Complete each sentence with a verb and an adjective from the box.

feel seemed look awful fine interesting

smell sounded tastes nice upset wet

1. Ann seemed upset this morning. Do you know what was wrong?

2. I can’t eat this. I’ve just tried it and it ......................................................................

3. Jim told me about his new job last night. It .....................................................................

quite ....................................................................., much better than his old job.

4. I wasn’t very well yesterday but I ..................................................................... today.

5. What beautiful flowers! They ..................................................................... too.

6. You ...................................................................... Have you been out in the rain?

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