Adjective Order

The basic types of adjectives

An opinion adjective explains what you think about something (other

Opinion people may not agree with you). Examples: silly, beautiful, horrible,
difficult

A size adjective, of course, tells you how big or small something is.
Size Examples:
large, tiny, enormous, little

An age adjective tells you how young or old something or someone is.
Age Examples:
ancient, new, young, old

A shape adjective describes the shape of something. Examples:

Shape square, round, flat, rectangular

A colour adjective, of course, describes the colour of something.

Colour Examples:
blue, pink, reddish, grey

An origin adjective describes where something comes from. Examples:

Origin French, lunar, American, eastern, Greek

A material adjective describes what something is made from. Examples:

Material wooden, metal, cotton, paper

A purpose adjective describes what something is used for. These

Purpose adjectives often end with "-ing". Examples:
sleeping (as in "sleeping bag"), roasting (as in "roasting tin")

Some examples of adjective order

Opinion Size Age Shape Colour Origin Material Purpose
a silly young English man
a huge round metal bowl
a small red sleeping bag
Exercise 1: Choose the best answer:
1. Which is the correct order?
A. a small Canadian thin lady C. a small thin Canadian lady
B. a Canadian small thin lady D. a thin small Canadian lady
2. Which is the correct order?
A. a carving steel new knife D. a new carving steel knife
B. a new steel carving knife
C. a steel new carving knife
3. Which is the correct order?
A. a beautiful blue sailing boat C. a sailing beautiful blue boat
B. a blue beautiful sailing boat D. a blue sailing beautiful boat
4. Which is the correct order?
A. an old wooden square table C. an old square wooden table
B. a square wooden old table D. a wooden old square table
5. Which is the correct order?
A. an new French exciting band C. an exciting French new band
B. a French new exciting band D. an exciting new French band
6. Which is the correct order?
A. a red big plastic hat D. a bit plastic red hat
B. a big red plastic hat
C. a plastic big red hat
7. Which is the correct order?
A. a small Japanese serving bowl C. a small serving Japanese bowl
B. a Japanese small serving bowl D. a serving small Japanese bowl
8. Which is the correct order?
A. a cotton dirty old tie C. an old cotton dirty tie
B. a dirty cotton old tie D. a dirty old cotton tie
Exercise 2: Give the correct order:
1. round small reading lamp
2. German old yellow car
3. wooden huge sailing ship
4. physics boring old teacher
5. slim Canadian handsome snowboarder
6. sugar blue round bowl
Exercise 3: Choose the best answer:
1. He was wearing a ________ shirt.
A. dirty old flannel B. flannel old dirty C. old dirty flannel
2. Pass me the ________ cups.
A. plastic big blue C. big plastic blue
B. big blue plastic
3. All the girls fell in love with the ________ teacher.
A. handsome new American C.new handsome American
B. American new handsome
4. I used to drive ________ car.
A. a blue old German B. an old German blue C. an old blue German
5. He recently married a ________ woman.
A.young beautiful Greek B.beautiful young Greek C.beautiful Greek young
6. This is a ________ movie.
A.new Italian wonderful B.wonderful Italian new C.wonderful new Italian
7. She is a ________ supermodel.
A. beautiful slim Brazilian B. Brazilian beautiful slim C. slim Brazilian beautiful
8. It's in the ________ container.
A. large blue metal B. blue large metal C. blue metal large
9. He sat behind a ________ desk.
A. big wooden brown C. wooden big brown
B. big brown wooden
10. She gave him a ________ vase.
A. small Egyptian black
B. black Egyptian small
C. small black Egyptian