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Word Order of Adjectives: Qualitative Adjective
Word Order of Adjectives: Qualitative Adjective
When more than one adjective is used in front of a noun, the usual order is
as follows:
qualitative adjective + colour adjective + classifying adjective.
a little white wooden house
rapid technological advance
a large circular pool of water
a necklace of blue Venetian beads
However, non-gradable adjectives indicating shape, such as "circular" and
"rectangular", often come in front of colour adjectives, even though they
are classifying adjectives:
the rectangular grey stones
the circular yellow patch on the lawn
ORDER OF QUALITATIVE ADJECTIVES
The order of qualitative adjectives is normally as follows:
opinions - size - quality - age - shape
We shall have a nice big garden with two apple trees.
It had a beautiful thick fur.
I saw big, shiny beetles.
He had long curly hair.
She put on her dirty old fur coat.
ORDER OF CLASSIFYING ADJECTIVES
If there is more than one classifying adjective in front of the noun, the
normal order is:
age - shape - nationality - material
a medieval French village.
a rectangular plastic box.
an Italian silk jacket.
Other types of classifying adjectives usually come after a nationality
adjective:
the Chinese artistic tradition.
the American political system.
In short, we usually put the more precise adjective nearest the noun that
follows it but it is not always easy to decide which is more precise. Use the
following colour-coded table as a guide for reference on adjective order.