Adjective order
Task 1: Put the following adjectives in the right order.
Our school is in a _______________________________ (big, old, rectangular) building.
We have ____________________________ (English, interesting, two) classes this week.
We have ______________________________ (a few, tasteless, tiny) hot dogs for dinner.
We drink some ____________________________ (American, orange, sweet) lemonade.
We meet a group of ________________________________ (five, smart, young) authors.
Today, we have a ______________________________ (difficult, extensive, math) exam.
We are selling our _____________________________________ (broken, tiny, ugly) car.
We can see _________________________________ (ancient, circular, several) menhirs.
They sell ____________________________________ (colourful, round, southern) cacti.
We are looking for ___________________________________ (fresh, red, some) apples.
This restaurant had _____________________________ (Atlantic, delicious, some) crabs.
Aunt Lucy bought an ___________________________ (antique, rocking, wooden) chair.
Jason wrote a _______________________________________ (horror, long, new) novel.
Ansgar joined an _________________________________ (ambitious, rich, soccer) team.
Kim directed an __________________________ (acclaimed, modern, international) film.
Alex watched the ____________________________________ (blue, northern, pale) sky.
Tony survived a ___________________________________ (big, electric, violent) storm.
Mary fell in love with a _______________________ (good-looking, tall, strapping) man.
Sean owns an _________________________________(imported, orange, precious) carp.
Mel got a ______________________________________ (canopy, massive, square) bed.
Task 2: Depict ten different objects in your house by using at least three different
adjectives to describe each item.
Name________________
Date________________
Order of Adjectives
• In English, it is common to use more than one adjective to describe a noun. These adjectives
must be used in the proper order.
Example: Here is a beautiful, red, cloth flag.
Why does beautiful come before red?
Why does red come before cloth?
• Understanding the proper order of adjectives takes practice. Use the following table to practice
using the proper order of adjectives in the following sentences.
Number
Opinion
Size
small
Age
Shape
round
Color
Origin
German
Material
red
generous
Noun
sleeping
old
four
Purpose
man
metal
Directions: Choose the correct order of adjectives in the following sentences.
1) The woman is wearing a ________
dress.
A) yellow long
B) long yellow
2) He is a ________ man.
A) tall thin
B) thin tall
3) The company makes ________
products.
A) excellent farming
B) farming excellent
4) James recently departed on a
________ trip.
A) camping long
B) long camping
5) I love eating ________ strawberries.
A) red big
B) big red
6) The ________ woman did well on the
test.
A) intelligent young
B) young intelligent
7) The ticket costs ________ dollars.
A) ten US
B) US ten
8) The scientists have found a ________
cure for the disease.
A) new great
B) great new
9) I am going to wear my ________ tie
to the wedding.
A) big cotton blue
B) blue big cotton
C) big blue cotton
10) Please recycle those ________ bottles.
A) three water empty
B) three empty water
C) water empty three
11) She packed her clothes in a ________
box.
A) green flimsy cardboard
B) flimsy green cardboard
C) cardboard flimsy green
12) Their dog is a ________ shepherd.
A) brown big German
B) big brown German
C) German big brown
13) I am drinking from a ________ cup.
A) small English tea
B) tea small English
C) English small tea
14) My ________ teacher talks for hours!
A) philosophy old boring
B) old philosophy boring
C) boring philosophy old
D) boring old philosophy
Directions: Now write two of your own sentences using more than one adjective to describe a noun.
1) ____________________________________________________________________________
2) ____________________________________________________________________________
Write
the categories below in the right columns of the chart according to the examples.
Then add more examples.
some
beautiful
tiny
square
an
awful
huge
four
expensive
enormous
rectangular
their
delicious
small
round
old
plain
new
red
ancient
blue
brown
floral
Italian
silver
brooches
French
cotton
money belt
Russian
porcelain
vases
English
chocolate
muffins
several
that
skirt
the
a pair of
Put the words given in each sentence in the
correct place. Pay attention to the order of
the adjectives in the chart above.
1) watch / Swiss / cute / my / little / golden / oval
2) blouse / orange / Portuguese / plain / the / silk
3) porcelain / several / Chinese / cups / blue / tiny
4) amazing / elephant / huge / Asian / old / an / grey
5) a / striped / t-shirt / cotton / trendy / colourful
Look at the pictures below and write a
description.
Write the categories below in the right columns of the chart according to the examples.
Then add more examples.
some
beautiful
tiny
oval
an
awful
huge
four
expensive
enormous
rectangular
their
delicious
small
round
old
plain
new
red
ancient
blue
floral
brown
Italian
silver
brooches
French
cotton
money belt
Russian
porcelain
vases
English
chocolate
muffins
several
that
skirt
the
a pair of
Put the words given in each sentence in the
correct place. Pay attention to the order of
the adjectives in the chart above.
1)
golden / watch / Swiss / old / my / little / cute
2)
blouse / orange / Portuguese / plain / the / silk
3)
porcelain / several / Chinese / cups / blue / tiny
Look at the pictures below and write a
description.
4)
amazing / elephant / huge / Asian / old / an / grey
5)
a / striped / t-shirt / cotton / trendy / colourful
WORD ORDER OF ADJECTIVES
Adjectives like new/large/round/wooden are FACT adjectives.
(They give us factual information about age, size, colour, etc.)
Adjectives like nice/beautiful/ugly are OPINION adjectives.
(They tell us what somebody thinks of something or somebody.)
OPINION adjectives usually go before FACT adjectives:
a nice long summer holiday,
a delicious hot vegetable soup,
an interesting young man,
a beautiful large round wooden table
Sometimes we use two or more FACT adjectives. We put FACT adjectives in this order:
1
How big?
2
How old?
What colour?
4
Where from?
large
brand-new
blue
Italian
a
a
a
3
COLOUR
red
brown
ORIGIN
Spanish
German
Venetian
MATERIAL
leather
5
woollen
PURPOSE
riding
beer
flower
glass
NOUN
What is it made of?
jumper
NOUN
boots
mug
vase
QUALITY
SIZE/AGE/SHAPE
COLOUR
ORIGIN
PAST PARTICIPLE
beautiful
old
brown
French
handmade
Numbers usually go before adjectives: six large eggs
NOUN
cupboard
the second big shock
FIRST, NEXT and LAST most often go before one, two, three, etc.
the first three days
my last two jobs
two
a
his
Pete’s
nice
young
grey
round
old
woollen
spotty
walking
noun
сложное,
составное
Compound
материал
Material
Origin
French
huge
dirty
происхождение
Pattern
рисунок, узор
цвет
Colour
форма
Shape
Age
возраст
размер/
состояние
Size/
Condition
мнение
Opinion
Determiner
Определяющее
слово
It is unnatural to use more than two or three adjectives together in one phrase.
men
jumper
face
shoes
Task: Put the adjectives in brackets in the correct position.
1) a table (wooden/round/beautiful) _______________________________________________________
2) a ring (gold/unusual) _________________________________________________________________
3) a pullover (woolen/pink/nice/new) ______________________________________________________
4) a house (old/ugly/Turkish) ____________________________________________________________
5) gloves (black/comfortable/leather) ______________________________________________________
6) a film (interesting/American/old) _______________________________________________________
7) a face (long/thin/good-looking) ________________________________________________________
8) clouds (frightening/big/black) _________________________________________________________
9) a day (lovely/sunny/happy) ___________________________________________________________
10) an avenue (long/wide/noisy) __________________________________________________________
11) a painting (French/interesting/old) _____________________________________________________
12) an umbrella (yellow/enormous/red/expensive/Japanese) ____________________________________