Order of Adjectives

Adjectives/Adverbs

Adjectives - word order: When there are two or more adjectives before a noun there are some complicated "rules" for the order in which they should appear. These are the most important:

1. opinion adjectives come before fact adjectives
2. fact adjectives appear as follows: size - age - colour - origin - material

Here are some examples:

• a silly old man (an old silly man )
• a beautiful blue butterfly (a blue beautiful butterfly )
• an interesting historical film (a historical interesting film)
• a huge metal box (a metal huge box )
• a new red dress (a red new dress )
• little Russian dolls (Russian little dolls )

Test yourself!
Put the adjectives in the correct order:

(1) Joe is a/an (American /young/tall) basketball star.
(2) I want to buy a (funny/red) mug for my brother for Christmas.
(3) My mother just bought a (blue/long/ beautiful) dress for herself.
(4) All my students are (smart/young/ British) girls.
(5)All I want for Christmas is a pair of  (black / vintage / Italian / leather) boots.
(6) My teacher always gives (boring/long) lectures.

                              
(1) Joe is a tall young American basketball star.
(2) I want to buy a funny red mug for my brother for Christmas.
(3) My mother just bought a beautiful long blue dress for herself.
(4) All my students are smart young  British girls.
(5) All I want for Christmas is a  pair of vintage black Italian leather boots.
(6) My teacher always gives long boring lectures.

                      

Exercise 1     Exercise 2