Adjectives and Adverbs
Adjectives
Order of Adjectives
Adjectives need to be placed in a particular order. What information do you post first? If you're a native English speaker, you can probably figure out the order without any thought. That's because you understand English grammar - even if it's only because you know what “sounds” right. And, if you're a non-native English speaker, you've probably been schooled in the order.
Below, you'll find a table illustrating the royal order of adjectives. Again, native English speakers follow the order - but we don't always know WHY. Think about it. Why would we automatically write four gorgeous, long-stemmed, red, silk roses rather than four silk, long stemmed, gorgeous, red roses? What drives the order in our description? The first example leads us down a logical path; the second example doesn't let us know which details are most important.
The Royal Order of Adjectives
Determiner | Observation | Physical Description | Origin | Material | Qualifier | Noun | |||
Size | Shape | Age | Color | ||||||
a | beautiful | old | Italian | touring | car | ||||
an | expensive | antique | silver | mirror | |||||
four | gorgeous | stemmed | red | silk | roses | ||||
her | short | black | hair | ||||||
our | big | old | English | sheepdog | |||||
those | square | wooden | hat | boxes | |||||
that | dilapidated | little | hunting | cabin | |||||
several | giant | young | American | basketball | players | ||||
some | delicious | Chinese | food |
There are some rules, though. Here is the specific order for English language adjectives - intensifier, quality, size, age, color. Look at the two sentences again.
Four gorgeous provides the intensifier and quality; long-stemmed provides the size; red, provides the color; and silk provides an additional detail. Now look at the order of the adjectives in one of your own sentences and see if it makes sense to you.