Adjective Order
Select the correct order of the adjectives in these sentences.
He invited that ___ lady to dinner.
young beautiful
beautiful young
These are ___ products.
excellent agricultural
agricultural excellent
Why can't you wear your ___ dress tonight?
pink silk
silk pink
The boy needs ___ balls for that activity
ten cotton small
ten small cotton
I've booked that ___ table on the corner.
big square
square big
Mary's husband gave her a ___ vase.
porcelain French
French porcelain
He broke Mother's ___ milk jug.
green old
old green
My brother wants to meet that ___ girl.
tall Japanese
Japanese tall
What do you plan to do with these ___ bottles?
empty wine
wine empty
That ___ woman needs help.
old foreign
foreign old
There are two ___ dresses in her closet.
red beautiful
beautiful red
Tom never lets his sister drive his ___ car.
sports expensive
expensive sports
When traveling to Peru, make sure you visit the ___ ruins.
ancient Inca
Inca ancient
She sells ___ cookies.
delicious chocolate
chocolate delicious
The room was decorated with ___ balloons.
red big
big red
Adjective Word Order
Adjectives are words that modify nouns and pronouns. To modify means to
change a little. Adjectives change pronouns and nouns by telling more about
them. Telling more about a pronoun or noun makes sentences more interesting
to read.
Compare the following two sentences.
I have a car.
I have a shiny new car.
The first sentence is kind of boring. The writer has not told us anything about
the car. The second sentence, however, is more interesting. We now know that
the writer has a shiny new car. We can imagine that the writer is excited about
his car.
When using more than one adjective in a sentence you should use the
following word order.
Opinion
Size
Age
Color
Nationality Material
ugly
short
new
red
American
wool
cheap
small
used
yellow
Korean
wood
boring
fat
old
brown
Japanese
plastic
Opinion adjectives are used to express your opinion. Keep in mind that your
opinion may not be the same as someone else's opinion. For example, you and
a friend see the same movie. You liked the movie and describe the movie as
exciting, but your friend didn't like the movie and says that is was boring. You
are both correct, you just have different opinions about the same movie.
Nationalities are always capitalized. Chinese, Mexican, Brazilian
Descriptive adjectives usually occur in the following order
adjectives
Evaluation/Opinion
Appearance
Age
Color
size/measure
Origin
geographical
good
big
old
red
French
bad
small
young
green
Mexican
ugly
low
new
blue
Japanese
interesting
high
antique
striped
material
fascinating
heavy
ancient
dark blue
ceramic
intelligent
shape
deep purple
cotton
pretty
triangular
pink
wooden
unsightly
square
brown
brass
condition
chipped
broken
rotten
Variations do occur within the category "appearance".
Usually the order is size, shape, condition:
A tall, round, out-of -condition man sat breathing heavily on the park bench.
or
A tall, out-of -condition, round, man sat breathing heavily on the park bench.
or
A out-of -condition, tall, round, man sat breathing heavily on the park bench.
Generally, speakers do not use more than three or four adjectives before a noun:
*The intelligent, little, young, black, French poodle sat next to his owner in a Paris cafe.
* so many adjectives!
Select the correct word order.
example
1. An
angry, little, brown
brown, angry, little
golpher complained about a misdirected golf ball.
2. A (n)
restaurant .
sports car was parked in front of the
Italian, beautiful, new
beautiful, new, Italian
3. A
barber shop.
barber pole was next to the front door of the
big, red and white, striped
big, striped, red and white
4. A
boy was chopping wood in the backyard.
strong, little, young
little, strong, young
5. She wore her
pumps.
high-heeled, black, suede
high-heeled, suede, black
6. You can't take your
"pump" style shoe
knife with you on an airplane .
Swiss, army, red
red, Swiss, army
7. We put a(n)
ugly, tiny, artificial
artificial, tiny, ugly
tree in the corner of their office.
8. My uncle bought a
TV.
high-definition,brand-new, plasma
brand-new, high-definition, plasma
9. She offered me tea in a
cup .
ceramic, small, chipped,
small, chipped, ceramic
10. The elf lived in a
charming, little, mushroom
charming, mushroom, little
house in the forest.
