Order of Adjectives | Rules and Examples

When we use more than one adjective before a noun in English, we
have to put them in the right order – order of adjectives.

Order of Adjectives in English

Generally, 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…

Opinion

An opinion adjective explains what you think about something (other people may not agree with you).
Examples: 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

Size and Shape

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. 

• A shape adjective describes the shape of something.

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

Age

An age adjective tells you how young or old something or someone is.
Examples: ancient, new, young, old…

Color

A color adjective, of course, describes the color of something.
Examples: black, yellow, blue, pink, reddish, grey…

Origin

An origin adjective describes where something comes from.
Examples: British, Chinese, French, American, Greek, Italian, Japanese, German…

Material

A material adjective describes what something is made from.
Examples: woollen, wooden, silk, metal, paper, gold, silver, copper, cotton, leather, polyester, nylon, stone, diamond, plastic…

Purpose

A purpose adjective describes what something is used for. These adjectives often end with “-ing”.
Examples: sleeping (as in “sleeping bag”), roasting (as in “roasting tin”), running (as in “running shoes”), a flower vase, a tennis racket

Order of Adjectives | Image