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 anamazing redcoat.
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 a1strange,6green,8metallicmaterial.
It’s a2long,4narrow,8plasticbrush.
Panettone is a4round,7Italian,9bread-likeChristmas cake.
Here are some invented examples of longer adjective phrases. A noun phrase which included all these types would be extremely rare.
She was a1beautiful,2tall,3thin,5young,6black-haired,7Scottishwoman.
What an1amazing,2little,5old,7Chinesecup and saucer!
Adjectives joined byand
When more than one adjective occurs after a verb such asbe(a linking verb), the second last adjective is normallyconnected to the last adjective byand:
Home was always a warm, welcoming place. Now it is sad, darkandcold.
Andis less common when more than one adjective comes before the noun (e.g.a warm, welcoming place). However, we can useandwhen there are two or more adjectives of the same type, or when the adjectives refer to different parts of the same thing:
It was ablue and greencotton shirt.
See also:
Adjectives