Adjective Placement

How To Use Adjectives

When using more than one adjective to describe a noun place the adjectives in the following order
before the noun.
NOTE: We usually use no more than three adjectives preceding a noun.
1. Opinion and general description Example: nice, funny, lovely
2. Dimension / Size / Weight Example: big, small, heavy
3. Age Example: old, new, young, ancient
4. Shape Example: round, square, oval
5. Colour Example: green, red, blue, black
6. Country of origin Example: Italian, Polish, English
7. Material Example: wooden, cotton, woollen, plastic
1. Example: walking (socks), tennis (racquet), electric (iron)
Here are some examples of nouns modified with three adjectives in the correct order based on the
list above. Notice that the adjectives are not separated by commas.

A wonderful old French clock. (opinion - age - origin)

A big square blue box. (dimension - shape - colour)

A disgusting pink plastic ornament. (opinion - colour - material)

8. urpose and power

eyes green - lovely

girl skinny - short

Exercises

jumper woollen - large black

flat beautiful - modern small

magazine English - strange

hat cotton - funny - green

jacket cotton green new

apple ripe - green - delicious