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Adjective Order: Opinion

There are basic rules for the order of adjectives before nouns. Opinion adjectives like "lovely" generally come first, followed by fact adjectives in the order of size, shape, age, color, origin, material, and purpose. Determiners such as articles, possessives, and quantifiers usually precede other adjectives. When using two color adjectives, they are joined with "and." Examples are provided to illustrate the typical order of adjectives before nouns.

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49 views4 pages

Adjective Order: Opinion

There are basic rules for the order of adjectives before nouns. Opinion adjectives like "lovely" generally come first, followed by fact adjectives in the order of size, shape, age, color, origin, material, and purpose. Determiners such as articles, possessives, and quantifiers usually precede other adjectives. When using two color adjectives, they are joined with "and." Examples are provided to illustrate the typical order of adjectives before nouns.

Uploaded by

Lan Pham
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Adjective Order

There are 2 basic positions for adjectives:


1. before the noun
2. after some verbs (be, become, get, seem, look, feel, sound, smell,
taste -> Linking Verbs)
adj.
before
noun

I have a

big

adj.
after
verb

dog.

Snow

is

white.

* 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?


1. First of all, the general order is:

opinion, fact
"Opinion" is what you think about something. "Fact" is what is
definitely true about something.

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

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 some grammarians regard


them as 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 colour 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

determiner

opinion
adjectives

two

ugly

other

size,
shape,
age,
colour

head noun

origin

black

well-

material

purpose*

guard

Chinese

dogs

artist

adjectives

fact adjectives

determiner

opinion
adjectives

other

size,
shape,
age,
colour

head noun

origin

material

purpose*

known

small,
18thcentur
y

French

your

fabulous

new

lovely

pink
and
green

Thai

silk

some

black

Spanish

leather

big
black
and
white

this

cheap

coffee

table

sports

car

dress

riding

boots

dog

plastic

rain

coat

adjectives

fact adjectives

determiner

opinion
adjectives

other

size,
shape,
age,
colour

an

old

my

new

wonderful

15thcentur
y

head noun

origin

material

purpose*

wooden

fishing

boat

tennis

racket

Arabic

*often a noun used as an adjective (sports car, history teacher, ticket


office)

poem

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