ADJECTIVE WORD ORDER

Determiners – a, an, the, my, your, several, etc.

1. Observations – lovely, boring, stimulating, etc.

2. Size – tiny, small, huge, etc.

3. Shape – round, square, rectangular, etc.

4. Age – old, new, ancient, etc.

5. Color – red, blue, green, etc.

6. Origin – British, American, Mexican, etc.

7. Material – gold, copper, silk, etc.

8. Qualifier – limiters for compound nouns.

Here are some examples:

"The interesting, small, rectangular, blue car is parked in my space."

"I bought a beautiful, long, red, Italian, silk tie."
"My father lives in a lovely, gigantic, ancient, brick house."
"I have an annoying, small, circular, American, tin, alarm clock that wakes me up."
"Let’s order a delicious, huge, rectangular, pepperoni pizza."
"We all love our smart, petite, British teacher."
"They all received several dazzling, small, ancient, gold coins."
"She owns a stunning, large, old, brown dog named Boris."

By Thomas Williams, teacher at EC San Diego English school

Noun and Adjective Endings

Now choose the correct sentence:

 1:
Correct!

A green, ugly tie.

An ugly, green tie.

A green, tie ugly.

 2:
Correct!

A book, interesting old.

An interesting, old book.

An old, interesting book.

 3:
Correct!

A big, white, wooden table.

A wooden, big, white table.

A white, big, wooden table.

 4:
Correct!

A bent, tiny, old, blue, Swiss pen.

A tiny, bent, old, blue, Swiss pen.

An old, blue, tiny, bent, Swiss pen.

 5:
Correct!

My middle-aged, tall, Italian, funny, husband.

My funny, tall, middle-aged, Italian husband.

My tall, funny, middle-aged, Italian husband.