Adjective order
Are you confused about using more than one adjective in a sentence? Remember the golden rule that ALL adjectives are put before the noun? Do you worry about where to put which adjective? Well here is the answer:
When using more than one adjective to describe a noun place the adjectives in the following order before the noun.
- Opinion Example: an interesting book, a boring lecture
- Dimension Example: a big apple, a thin wallet
- Age Example: a new car, a modern building, an ancient ruin
- Shape Example: a square box, an oval mask, a round ball
- Color Example: a pink hat, a blue book, a black coat
- Origin Example: some Italian shoes, a Canadian town, an American car
- Material Example: a wooden box, a woolen sweater, a plastic toy
NOTE: We usually use no more than three adjectives preceding a noun.
Here are some examples:
A big square wooden box
A beautiful white silk dress
A new vintage BMW
Now try some of your own:
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1. Which is the correct order?
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a small Canadian thin lady |
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a Canadian small thin lady |
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a small thin Canadian lady |
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a thin small Canadian lady
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2. Which is the correct order?
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a carving steel new knife |
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a new steel carving knife |
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a steel new carving knife |
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a new carving steel knife
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3. Which is the correct order?
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a beautiful blue sailing boat |
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a blue beautiful sailing boat |
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a sailing beautiful blue boat |
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a blue sailing beautiful boat
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4. Which is the correct order?
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an old wooden square table |
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a square wooden old table |
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an old square wooden table |
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a wooden old square table
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5. Which is the correct order?
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an new French exciting band |
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a French new exciting band |
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an exciting French new band |
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an exciting new French band
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6. Which is the correct order?
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a red big plastic hat |
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a big red plastic hat |
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a plastic big red hat |
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a bit plastic red hat
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7. Which is the correct order?
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a small Japanese serving bowl |
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a Japanese small serving bowl |
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a small serving Japanese bowl |
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a serving small Japanese bowl
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8. Which is the correct order?
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a cotton dirty old tie |
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a dirty cotton old tie |
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an old cotton dirty tie |
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a dirty old cotton tie
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Answers: 1(3), 2(2), 3(1), 4(1), 5(4), 6(2), 7(1), 8(4)
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