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
