Order of adjectives
When more than one adjective comes before a noun, the adjectives are normally in a particular order. Adjectives which describe opinions or attitudes (e.g. amazing) usually come first, before more neutral, factual ones (e.g. red):
She was wearing an amazing red coat.
Not: …
red amazing coat
If we don’t want to emphasise any one of the adjectives, the most usual sequence of adjectives is:
|
order |
relating to |
examples |
|
1 |
opinion |
unusual, lovely, beautiful |
|
2 |
size |
big, small, tall |
|
3 |
physical quality |
thin, rough, untidy |
|
4 |
shape |
round, square, rectangular |
|
5 |
age |
young, old, youthful |
|
6 |
colour |
blue, red, pink |
|
7 |
origin |
Dutch, Japanese, Turkish |
|
8 |
material |
metal, wood, plastic |
|
9 |
type |
general-purpose, four-sided, U-shaped |
|
10 |
purpose |
cleaning, hammering, cooking |
It was made of a 1strange, 6green, 8metallic material.
It’s a 4long, 8narrow, 10plastic brush.
Panettone is a 4round, 7Italian, 9bread-like Christmas cake.
Here are some invented examples of longer adjective phrases. A noun phrase which included all these types would be extremely rare.
She was a 1beautiful, 2tall, 3thin, 5young, 6black-haired, 7Scottish woman.
What an 1amazing, 2little, 5old, 7Chinese cup and saucer!
Adjectives joined by and
When more than one adjective occurs after a verb such as be (a linking verb), the second last adjective is normally connected to the last adjective by and:
Home was always a warm, welcoming place. Now it is sad, dark and cold.
And is less common when more than one adjective comes before the noun (e.g. a warm, welcoming place). However, we can use and when there are two or more adjectives of the same type, or when the adjectives refer to different parts of the same thing:
It was a blue and green cotton shirt.
