One of the first things we learn when we decide to study English is the use of the adjectives. We all know that they always precede the noun and that they can be either singular or plural, that is, they are not added an «s» before a plural noun.
However when our English becomes more advanced we ask ourselves the following question concerning adjectives, When there are two or more adjectives describing the noun, what is the correct order? Today we are going to clarify this issue.
Generally speaking, adjectives that express opinion (beautiful, amazing…) come before the factual ones (e.g. blue, big, wooden…). The usual order is as follows:
- Opinion: pretty, nice, unusual, interesting
- Size: big, small, tall
- Physical quality: thin, narrow, wide
- Shape: round, square
- Age: old, young, new
- Colour: green, yellow, red
- Origin / nationality: Spanish, French, Chinese
- Material: metallic, wooden, plastic
- Type: heart-shaped, water-proof, stainless
- Purpose: cleaning, reading, connecting
Let’s now see a few examples:
- I’ve bought a fantastic new black waterproof watch
- My grandma has a round old Swiss wooden clock in her living room
- It was a long narrow U-shaped road
In any case, remember that in written or spoken language you will usually employ a maximum of three or four adjectives. Now you are capable of placing them in the right order, let’s put it into practice:
We hope you found this useful. Wishing you a nice beginning of the week!
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