ACADEMIA

DE INGLÉS
UAP UAZ

Grammar Reference
Order of adjectives
When more than one adjective comes before a noun, the adjectives are normally in a particular order. Adjectives which describe opinions or attitudes (e.g.
amazing) usually come first, before more neutral, factual ones (e. g. red):

She was wearing an amazing red coat.

Not: …. red amazing coat.
If we don’t want to emphasize any one of the adjectives, the most usual sequence of adjectives is:

Physical
Opinion Size Shape Age Color Origin Material Purpose Noun
quality
+
unusual, big, thin, rough, round, square, young, old, blue, Greek, metal, cleaning, house,
lovely, small, untidy rectangular ancient red, French, wood, cooking, person,
beautiful tall pink Italian plastic running hair

Physical descriptions
When giving physical descriptions, the two most common verbs to use are BE and HAVE, however, they are quite specific.
We use BE for: height, weight, skin color.
Bill is tall. Sandra is slim. My brothers are average height.
We use HAVE for: hair (length), hair (style), hair (color) and facial features.
Mark has short hair. Mary has brown hair. The girls have green eyes.

If you want to combine hair characteristics togetherin the same

sentence, then the structure is: Usually
Tip: the most visible features the most
are usually visible features
described first. are described first:
length + style + color + hair
height build hair nose
• Michael has short curly black hair.
• Mary has long wavy brown hair.
Victor is tall and average build and has short hair and a small nose.
• The boys have short straight blond hair.

Considerations when describing the physical appearance

We have to be really careful when we describe other people’s physical appearance since some descriptions might be considered
impolite or offensive to some people.
Whether the description is correct, people might take it the wrong way when referring to the height, body shape or size.

Docentes: Pedro Murillo Márquez Elva E. Jiménez Ureña Jorge A. Pacheco García