Order of adjectives

An adjective is a word that describes a noun. In the phrase red car, red is an adjective. Sometimes we use several adjectives to describe a noun. Example: a small, red, German car.

When we use more than one adjective before a noun, the adjectives need to be in a particular order.

Most native speakers simply do it naturally. If you want your English to sound more natural, you must use the adjectives in the proper order.

Determiner

Determiners usually come before adjectives. Articles (a, the), possessives (my, his, her, its), demonstratives (this, that, these, those) and numbers (one, three, five) are determiners.

1	Determiner
	qualifier	all, both, some, any
	article	a/an, the
	demonstrative	this, that, these, those
	possessive	my, his, her, its
	number	two, five, 9

Opinion adjectives

Opinion is what someone thinks about something. These adjectives always come before fact adjectives.

2

Opinion

good, bad, beautiful, interesting

Fact adjectives

Fact adjectives give us true information about something. For example, they tell us how old someone is, or where something is from. We can use several fact adjectives before a noun. In this case, we put them in a particular order. The table shows the standard order of fact adjectives.

3	Size	small, huge, big, tall
4	Shape	round, square, thin
5	Condition	cold, hot, hungry, dirty
6	Age	old, young, new
7	Colour	red, blue, purple
8	Origin	Azeri, British, Chinese
9	Material	plastic, glass, silver
10	Purpose	fishing, tennis, cleaning

Examples:

• a short white cotton dress [1 – 3 – 7 – 9]
• two  tall, modern, office buildings  [1 – 3 – 6 – 10]
• a good-looking young man [1 – 2 – 6]
• this brown, wooden, dinner table [1 – 7 – 9 – 10]
• a broken, Chinese, flower vase  [1 – 5 – 8 – 10]

Grammar Cards