Adjective Order in English
There is a specific order in which you use adjectives to make your sentence sound the most natural.
In this lesson, you’ll learn the order and practise using it.
What is the adjective order?
When using multiple adjectives to describe a noun, we use a specific order for the adjectives.
Adjective Order
- Opinion, Size, Age, Shape, Colour, Origin, Material, and Purpose
Examples
- Opinion: lovely, beautiful, ugly
- Size: big, large, tiny
- Age: Old, new, ancient
- Shape: rectangle, flat, oval
- Colour, burgundy, purple, light
- Origin: French, British, Spanish
- Material: silk, cotton, wool
- Purpose: sleeping (bag), frying (pan), racing (car)
Commas
- Commas aren’t needed unless the words are from the same category.
Examples
The lovely ancient French wooden drawer.
A comfortable new blue sleeping bag.
It's a big old white cotton t-shirt.
Practise
Rewrite the sentences putting the adjectives in the correct order.
Common mistakes learners make
- Using the wrong word order
- Using commas unnecessarily
Common mistakes learners make
- Using the wrong word order
- Using commas unnecessarily