Adjective Order 

There are 2 basic positions for adjectives: 

1. Adjective Before Noun 

2. Adjective After Verb 

      adj.        adj. 

before  after 

noun  verb 

1  I have a  big  dog.       

2        Snow  i white
s  . 

Adjective Before Noun 

We often use more than one adjective before the noun: 

● I like ​big black​ dogs. 

● She was wearing a ​beautiful long red​ dress. 

What is the correct order for two or more adjectives? 

1. First of all, the general order is: 

opinion​, f​ act 
"Opinion" is what you ​think​ about something. "Fact" is what is definitely 
true​ about something. 

● a lovely new dress (​not​ ​a new lovely dress​) 

● a boring French film (​not​ a​ French boring film​) 

2. The "normal" order for ​fact adjectives​ is 

size, shape, age, colour / origin / material / 

purpose 

● a small 18th-century French coffee table 

● a rectangular black wooden box 

3. Determiners usually come ​first​, even though some grammarians regard 

them as f​ act adjectives​: 

● articles (a, the) 

● possessives (my, your...) 
● demonstratives (this, that...) 
● quantifiers (some, any, few, many...) 
● numbers (one, two, three) 

Note that when we want to use two ​colour adjectives​, we join them with 
"and": 

● Many newspapers are ​black​ and ​white​. 

● She was wearing a long, ​blue​ and y
​ ellow​ dress. 

Here are some examples of adjective order: 

   adjectives  hea
d 
determin opinion  fact adjectives  nou
er  adjectiv n 
es 
othe size,  origin  materi purpos
r  shap al  e* 
e, 
age, 
colou
r 

two  ugly     black        guard  dog

s 

a     well-    Chine       artis

kno se  t 
wn 

a        small Frenc    coffee  tabl

,  h  e 
18th-
centu
ry 

your  fabulou    new        sports  car 

s 

a  lovely     pink  Thai  silk     dres

and  s 
gree
n 
 some        black  Spani leathe riding  boot
sh  r  s 

a        big           dog 
black 
and 
white 

this     chea       plasti rain  coat 

p  c 

an        old     wood fishing  boat 

en 

my        new        tennis  rack

et 

a  wonderf    15th- Arabi       poe

ul  centu c  m 
ry 

*often a noun used as an adjective 

Not all grammarians agree about the exact order of adjectives, and the 
detailed rules are complicated. The rules on this page are for the normal, 
"natural" order of adjectives. These rules are not rigid, and you may 
sometimes wish to change the order for emphasis. Consider the following 
conversations: 

Conversation 1 

A "I want to buy a round table." 

B "Do you want a new round table or an old round table?" 

Conversation 2 

A "I want to buy an old table". 

B "Do you want a round old table or a square old table?" 

Adjective After Verb 

An adjective can come ​after​ some verbs, such as: b
​ e, become, feel, get, 
look, seem, smell, sound 

Even when an adjective comes after the verb and not before a noun, it 
always refers to and qualifies the ​subject​ of the clause, not the verb. 

Look at the examples below: s

​ ubject​ ​verb​ ​adjective 

● Ram​ ​is​ ​English​. 

● Because she had to wait, ​she​ ​became​ ​impatient​. 
● Is ​it​ g
​ etting​ d
​ ark​? 
● The examination​ did not s ​ eem​ d
​ ifficult​. 
● Your friend​ l​ ooks​ ​nice​. 
● This towel​ f​ eels​ ​damp​. 
● That new film​ doesn't ​sound​ very ​interesting​. 
● Dinner​ s ​ mells​ g​ ood​ tonight. 
● This milk​ t​ astes​ s ​ our​. 
● It​ s
​ mells​ b​ ad​. 

These verbs are "stative" verbs, which express a state or change of state, 
not "dynamic" verbs which express an action. Note that some verbs can be 
stative in one sense (she looks beautiful | it got hot), and dynamic in 
another (she looked at him | he got the money). The above examples do not 
include all stative verbs. 
Note also that in the above structure (​subject​ v​ erb​ ​adjective​), the adjective 
can qualify a pronoun since the subject may be a pronoun.