English Grammar: Order of Adjectives

1. Determiner:

The determiner: to inform it the adjectives is singular or plural, definite or indefinite, next or far.

Examples:

a car, an apple, the book, the flowers, this man, that woman, these computers, those teachers

2. Opinion:

An opinion adjective explains what you think about something (other people may not agree with you).

Examples:

good, bad, great, terrible, pretty, lovely, silly, beautiful, horrible, difficult, comfortable/uncomfortable, ugly, awful, strange, delicious, disgusting, tasty, nasty, important, excellent, wonderful, brilliant, funny, interesting, boring

3. Size:

A size adjective, of course, tells you how big or small something is.

Examples:

huge, big, large, tiny, enormous, little, tall, long, gigantic, small, short, minuscule.

4. Age:

An age adjective tells you how young or old something or someone is.

Examples:

ancient, new, young, old

5. Shape:

A shape adjective describes the shape of something.

Examples:

triangular, square, round, flat, rectangular

6. Color:

A color adjective, of course, describes the color of something.

Examples:

black, yellow, blue, pink, reddish, grey

7. Origin:

An origin adjective describes where something comes from.

Examples:

British, Chinese, French, American, Greek, Italian, Japanese, German

8. Material:

A material adjective describes what something is made from.

Examples:

woollen, wooden, silk, metal, paper, gold, silver, copper, cotton, leather, polyester, nylon, stone, diamond, plastic

9. Purpose:

A purpose adjective describes what something is used for. These adjectives often end with “-ing”.

Examples:

writing (as in “writing paper”), sleeping (as in “sleeping bag”), roasting (as in “roasting tin”), running (as in “running shoes”), a flower vase, a tennis racket

10. Noun:

The noun: the figure that is receiving the adjectives.