Adjectives word order
A Woodward English grammar lesson.
An adjective is a word that describes something...
a noun.
An adjective gives us more information about a person or thing.
Adjectives sometimes appear after the verb TO BE.
The order is: TO BE + Adjective
He is tall.
She is happy.
Adjectives sometimes appear before a noun.
The order is: Adjective + Noun
slow car
brown hat
But, sometimes you want to use more than one adjective
to describe something or someone.
Here is a hat.
What happens if the hat is both brown and old?
Do we say: an old brown hat OR a brown old hat?
Which is correct?
An old brown hat is correct
because a certain order for adjectives is expected.
A brown old hat
sounds incorrect or not natural
So what is the correct order of adjectives before a noun in English?
The order of adjectives before a noun is usually the following:
opinion, size, age, shape, color, origin, material, purpose.
If we take the first letter of each one, it creates...
OSASCOMP
which is an easy way to remember the order.
Look at this example.
We are describing a bag.
It is an ugly small old thin red Italian cotton sleeping bag.
It is not common to have so many adjectives before a noun,
but I do this so you can see the correct order of adjectives.
Ugly is an opinion.
Small is a size.
Old refers to age.
Thin refers to shape.
Red is a color.
Italian refers to its origin.
Cotton refers to the material the bag is made of.
Sleeping is the purpose of the bag.
I will go into more details about each of these categories in a moment.
First, let's see two more examples.
A beautiful long white French silk wedding dress.
Large ancient Greek clay flower vases.
Let's study the second one.
Here we have a dress.
Dress is a noun or the name of a thing.
Let's describe the dress.
What type of dress is it?
What is the purpose of this dress?
It is used for weddings, so it is a wedding dress.
Let's imagine the dress is made of silk.
It isn't made of plastic or gold. No, it is made of silk.
Silk is a material so it goes before the purpose.
We say it is a silk wedding dress.
Now, this dress was made in France.
France is a noun. It's adjective is French.
Its origin is French.
So we say it is a French silk wedding dress.
Its origin, French, goes before the material, silk.
Let's add the color of the dress. What color is it?
white
Color goes before origin
so we say it's a white French silk wedding dress.
What is the shape of the dress?
Is it long or short?
It is long.
The adjective long goes under the category of shape
because shape also covers weight or length.
We will see more about this in a moment.
We now say it is a long white French silk wedding dress.
Let's add one more adjective.
Is the dress beautiful or ugly?
Well, you should always say it is beautiful
or it will ruin her wedding day.
Beautiful is an opinion
and adjectives about opinions
go before all the other adjectives.
So, our final long description of the dress is...
It is a beautiful long white French silk wedding dress.
Now of course we do not normally add so many adjectives before a noun.
This example is just to show you the order of adjectives.
IMPORTANT!
The order of adjectives before a noun is not 100% fixed.
This chart is only a guide and it is the order that is preferred.
You may see or hear slight variations of the order of adjectives in real life though,
what appears in the chart is the order that is expected the most.
Now, let's look at each type of adjective in more detail with examples.
Opinion.
These adjectives explain what we think about something.
This is our opinion, attitude or observations that we make.
Some people may not agree with you because their opinion may be different.
These adjectives of opinion
almost always come before all other adjectives.
Some examples of adjectives referring to opinion are...
delicious, lovely, nice, cool, pretty.
For example
She is sitting in a comfortable green armchair.
Comfortable is my opinion or observation.
The armchair looks comfortable.
The armchair is also green.
Here we have two adjectives.
The order is... comfortable green armchair
because opinion (comfortable) is before color (green).
Size
Adjectives about size tell us how big or small something is.
Some examples of adjectives referring to size are...
big, small, tall, huge, tiny, large.
For example
a big fat red monster
or dinosaur or dragon...
I'm not sure what it is, but it is big fat and red
Notice how big is first because it refers to size
and fat is next because it refers to shape or weight
then finally we have the color red before the noun
big fat red monster
Age
Adjectives of age tell us how old someone or something is.
How old is it?
Some examples of adjectives referring to age are...
old, young, new, antique, ancient.
For example
a scary old house
Scary is my opinion.
Old refers to the age of the house.
Scary is before old because opinion is before age.
Scary old house.
Shape
also weight and length.
These adjectives tell us about the shape of something
or how long or short it is.
It can also refer to the weight of someone or something.
Some examples of adjectives referring to shape are...
round, square, long, fat, heavy.
For example
a small round table
What is the shape of the table?
It is round.
What is the size of the table?
It is small.
The order is... small round table because size is before shape.
Color
The color or approximate color of something.
Some examples of adjectives referring to color are...
green, blue, reddish, purple, pink.
Adding ISH at the end
makes the color an approximate color.
In this case, reddish is approximately red.
Our example
a long yellow dress
What is the color of the dress?
It is yellow.
The dress is also long.
Long is an adjective of shape or more precisely length.
It is before an adjective of color.
long yellow dress
Origin
Origin tells us where something is from
or where it was created.
Some examples of adjectives referring to origin are...
American, British, Indian, Turkish.
Remember, nationalities and places of origin
start with a capital letter.
For example
an ancient Egyptian boy
His origin is Egyptian.
Egyptian needs to begin with a capital E
which is the big E.
Ancient refers to age
so it goes before the adjective of origin.
ancient Egyptian boy
Material
Material means what is the thing made of
or what is it constructed of.
Some examples of adjectives referring to material are...
gold, wooden, plastic, synthetic.
For example
a beautiful pearl necklace
Pearl is a material. They generally come from oysters.
The necklace is made of what material?
It is made of pearls.
The necklace is also beautiful
so I put this adjective of opinion before the adjective referring to material.
a beautiful pearl necklace
Purpose means
What is it used for?
What is the purpose or use of this thing?
Many of these adjectives end in -ING
but not always.
Some examples of adjectives referring to purpose are...
gardening... as in gardening gloves.
Shopping... as in shopping bag.
Riding... as in riding boots.
Our example
a messy computer desk
What is the purpose of the desk?
It is a place for my computer,
it is designed specifically to use with a computer.
It is a computer desk.
In this case, the desk is also very messy.
Messy is an opinion.
Some people think my desk is messy
so the order is opinion before purpose.
It is a messy computer desk.
So this is the general order of adjectives in English.
And you can remember them by the mnemonic OSASCOMP
or however you want to say it.
O, S, A, S, C, O, M, P.
But did you know that we could add some extra categories?
Yes, we can add the adjective categories of number and condition.
Number tells us the amount or quantity of something.
It is not only for normal cardinal numbers like 1, 2, 3,
but also other words that refer to quantities such as many or several.
Our examples of adjectives referring to numbers are...
one, two, three, many, several.
For example
three hungry dogs
Number adjectives go before all the other adjectives
including adjectives about opinion.
Hungry is a condition or state
so the order is three hungry dogs.
Condition tells us the general condition or state of something.
Our examples of adjectives referring to condition or state are
clean, wet, rich, hungry, broken.
For example
two smelly old shoes
Smelly is a condition or state.
Smelly is before old which refers to age.
The number two is at the beginning
as numbers always are.
I hope this was a useful English lesson for you.
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