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Adjective Order Guide

There is a specific order that adjectives should be placed before nouns in English. This order is represented by the acronym NOSASCOMP, which stands for number, opinion, size, age, shape, color, origin, material, and purpose. While this is the general order, adjectives can sometimes be rearranged for emphasis. The document provides examples of adjectives in the correct order and tips for practicing using adjectives to describe nouns according to the NOSASCOMP order.

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Eldin Čopelj
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397 views1 page

Adjective Order Guide

There is a specific order that adjectives should be placed before nouns in English. This order is represented by the acronym NOSASCOMP, which stands for number, opinion, size, age, shape, color, origin, material, and purpose. While this is the general order, adjectives can sometimes be rearranged for emphasis. The document provides examples of adjectives in the correct order and tips for practicing using adjectives to describe nouns according to the NOSASCOMP order.

Uploaded by

Eldin Čopelj
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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WORD ORDER OF ADJECTIVES

It is important to know that there's a specific order in which adjectives should be placed. As
you probably know, or do, in English we sometimes use more than just one adjective to
describe a noun and we can't put then wherever we want but they need to be orderly arranged.
You will NOT hear people say: ''My funny Persian fat adorable cat.'' – because that would
simply sound awkward. You can say: ''My adorable fat funny Persian car.'' As you know,
adjectives are used to describe a noun with extra information and hence are often used. Since
we have a lot of adjectives to deal with, you can try to remember this acronym which can help
you put adjectives in the right order:

NOSASCOMP

N O S A S C O M P
numbe opinion size age shape color origin materia purpos
r l e
one, adorable, big, old, round, pale, America cotton, fishing,
two, ugly,funn long, young, rectangula black n, wooden cooking
five y, tall, antique r, aquare, , blue French, , plastic ,
fantastic huge, , circular Greek, walking
giganti ancient Asian , sports,
c , new etc.

TIPS:

Usually, we don't use more than three adjectives in everyday conversations. Also, you will
sometimes hear people putting the adjctives in the wrong order to emphasize something, for
example: ''She has a square beautiful jaw.'' Square is the shape, and beautiful is an opinion
but square came first because I want to emphasize that.
Let's just have a short guided practice. Try to use your own adjectives to describe the
following nouns:

number opinion size age shape color origin materia purpose NOUN
l
woman
shoes
dresses
road

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