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Is There a Specific Order to Adjectives?
To put it simply...YES. Native speakers often don’t realize it, but there is a certain way to order adjectives within a sentence. Beginning with a determiner, the adjectives are then arranged in the following order:
| Type of Adjective | Explanation | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Quantity | Number; how many? | many, few, twelve |
| Opinion | what you think about something | ugly, pretty, goofy |
| Size | How big or small | tiny, miniscule, enormous |
| Shape | Describes the shape | square, round, triangular |
| Age | Tells how old | new, young, old, ancient |
| Color | Tells what color | grey, blue, faded, shiny |
| Origin | Where it’s from | English, Australian, Moroccan |
| Material | What it’s made of | gold, metal, paper, wooden |
| Purpose | What it’s used for; part of the noun | roasting pan, writing desk, sleeping bag |
Example:
• The ugly round faded English tweed hat sits atop the man’s head.
• An awful huge shiny Australian bug crawled into our tent.
