Grammar: Order of Adjectives
B1 Lesson 18: Describing Nouns with Multiple Adjectives
The Royal Order of Adjectives
When we use more than one adjective to describe a noun, we don't put them in a random order. English speakers naturally follow a specific sequence. Learning this sequence will make your language sound much more fluent and professional.
You will almost never use all of these categories at once! Using two or three is very common.
Adjective Order Guide
| Order # | Category | Example Words |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Opinion | beautiful, delicious, interesting, lovely |
| 2 | Size | big, small, long, tall |
| 3 | Age | old, ancient, new, young |
| 4 | Shape | round, square, flat |
| 5 | Color | red, blue, green, black |
| 6 | Origin | Khmer, French, American |
| 7 | Material | silk, stone, wooden, plastic |
| 8 | Purpose | sleeping (bag), cooking (pot) |
Examples in Action
- She bought a beautiful old Khmer statue.
(Opinion → Age → Origin → Noun) - He sat at a small round stone table.
(Size → Shape → Material → Noun) - I saw a friendly young French tourist.
(Opinion → Age → Origin → Noun)
Punctuation Tip: Using Commas
When you use two or more adjectives from the same category, or to create a nice rhythm, you can separate them with a comma ( , ). However, you do not put a comma between the final adjective and the noun.
- It was a long, hot, tiring day.
Practice Your Grammar 🎯
Exercise: Order the Adjectives
Put the adjectives in the correct order to describe the noun.
- a (stone / ancient / huge) statue
→ a huge, ancient, stone statue - an (American / interesting / young) visitor
→ an interesting, young, American visitor - a (silk / beautiful / blue) scarf
→ a beautiful, blue, silk scarf - a (small / wooden / old) box
→ a small, old, wooden box
Your Grammar Mission ⭐
Describe an Object
Find an object in your room or think of something interesting you saw today in your city. Describe it using at least three adjectives in the correct order.
Example: I saw an amazing, huge, ancient stone statue at the temple.
Key Vocabulary
- Order The arrangement of things in relation to each other.
- Origin The place where something comes from (e.g., a country).
- Material The substance that something is made from (e.g., wood, plastic, stone).