Order of Adjectives: How to Put Adjectives in the Correct Order in English

What is the correct order of adjectives? When you are going to use a number of different adjectives to describe a noun, it is important to be able to put the adjectives in the correct order. The reason for this is that when placed in the wrong order, numerous adjectives can sound misplaced, uneven, and somewhat cacophonous.

In this section, we will be looking at the best way to order your adjectives which will not only allow your sentences to flow much more easily but will also give you the impression of being a native English speaker.

Order of Adjectives

In English, it is common to use more than oneadjectivebefore a noun. For example, “It is abeautiful long newdress.” or “She has bought asquare white Japanesecake.” When you use more than one adjective, you have to put them in the right order – order of adjectives.

Learn how to put adjectives in the right order with useful grammar rules and examples.

In general, the adjective order in English is:

Determiner

Words that work as articles and other limiters including numbers.

Example:a, an, the, both, either, some, many, my, your, our, their, his, her, five, each, every, this, that…

Observation

(Opinion)

In general, an opinion adjective explains what you think about something (other people may not agree with you).

Example:good, bad, great, terrible, pretty, lovely, silly, beautiful, horrible, difficult, comfortable/uncomfortable, ugly, awful, strange, delicious, disgusting, tasty, nasty, important, excellent, wonderful, brilliant, funny, interesting, boring.

大小

Adjectives that describe a factual or objective quality of the noun.

  • A size adjective, of course, tells you how big or small something is.

Example:huge, big, large, tiny, enormous, little, tall, long, gigantic, small, short, minuscule.

Age

An age adjective (adjective denoting age) tells you how young or old something or someone is.

Example:young, old, new, ancient, six-year-old, antique, youthful, mature, modern, old-fashioned, recent…

Shape

  • A shape adjective describes the shape of something.

Example:triangular, square, round, flat, rectangular.

Color

Acoloradjective (adjective denoting color), of course, describes the color of something.

Example:red, black, pale, bright, faded, shining, yellow, orange, green, blue, purple, pink, aquamarine…

Origin

Denominal adjectives denoting source of noun.

An origin adjective describes where something comes from.

Example:French, American, Canadian, Mexican, Greek, Swiss, Spanish,Victorian, Martian…

Material

Denominal adjectives denoting what something is made of.

Example:woollen, wooden, silk, metal, paper, gold, silver, copper, cotton, leather, polyester, nylon, stone, diamond, plastic…

Qualifier

(Purpose)

最后的限幅器,通常被视为的一部分noun.

A purpose adjective describes what something is used for. These adjectives often end with “-ing”.

Example:writing (as in “writing paper”), sleeping (as in “sleeping bag”), roasting (as in “roasting tin”), running (as in “running shoes”).

Order of Adjectives | Images

Order of Adjectives Pin

Order of Adjectives in English | Grammar Rules and Examples Pin

To summarize, in English, adjectives pertaining to size precede adjectives pertaining to age (“little old“, not “old little“), which in turn generally precede adjectives pertaining to color (“old white“, not “white old“). So, we would say “A (determiner) beautiful (opinion) old (age) Indian (origin) lamp.

形容词的顺序|例子

Order of Adjectives: How to Put Adjectives in the Correct Order in English 2 Pin

Adjective Order Video

https://youtu.be/lYtm5nVnlgw

Last Updated on August 9, 2023

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