Adjective Order
The basic types of adjectives
Opinion
An opinion adjective explains what you think about something (other
people may not agree with you). Examples: silly, beautiful, horrible,
difficult
Size
A size adjective, of course, tells you how big or small something is.
Examples:
large, tiny, enormous, little
Age
An age adjective tells you how young or old something or someone is.
Examples:
ancient, new, young, old
Shape
A shape adjective describes the shape of something. Examples:
square, round, flat, rectangular
Colour
A colour adjective, of course, describes the colour of something.
Examples:
blue, pink, reddish, grey
Origin
An origin adjective describes where something comes from. Examples:
French, lunar, American, eastern, Greek
Material
A material adjective describes what something is made from.
Examples:
wooden, metal, cotton, paper
Purpose
A purpose adjective describes what something is used for. These
adjectives often end with "-ing". Examples:
sleeping (as in "sleeping bag"), roasting (as in "roasting tin")
Some examples of adjective order
Opinion Size Age Shape Colour Origin Material Purpose
a silly
young
a
huge
a
small
English
round
man
metal
red
bowl
sleeping bag
Exercise 1: Choose the best answer:
1. Which is the correct order?
A. a small Canadian thin lady
C. a small thin Canadian lady
B. a Canadian small thin lady
D. a thin small Canadian lady
2. Which is the correct order?
A. a carving steel new knife
C. a steel new carving knife
B. a new steel carving knife
D. a new carving steel knife
3. Which is the correct order?
A. a beautiful blue sailing boat
C. a sailing beautiful blue boat
B. a blue beautiful sailing boat
D. a blue sailing beautiful boat
4. Which is the correct order?
A. an old wooden square table
C. an old square wooden table
B. a square wooden old table
D. a wooden old square table
5. Which is the correct order?
A. an new French exciting band
C. an exciting French new band
B. a French new exciting band
D. an exciting new French band
6. Which is the correct order?
A. a red big plastic hat
C. a plastic big red hat
B. a big red plastic hat
D. a bit plastic red hat
7. Which is the correct order?
A. a small Japanese serving bowl
C. a small serving Japanese bowl
B. a Japanese small serving bowl
D. a serving small Japanese bowl
8. Which is the correct order?
A. a cotton dirty old tie
C. an old cotton dirty tie
B. a dirty cotton old tie
D. a dirty old cotton tie
Exercise 2: Give the correct order:
1. round small reading lamp
2. German old yellow car
3. wooden huge sailing ship
4. physics boring old teacher
5. slim Canadian handsome snowboarder
6. sugar blue round bowl
Exercise 3: Choose the best answer:
1. He was wearing a ________ shirt.
A. dirty old flannel
B. flannel old dirty
C. old dirty flannel
2. Pass me the ________ cups.
A. plastic big blue
B. big blue plastic
C. big plastic blue
3. All the girls fell in love with the ________ teacher.
A. handsome new American
B. American new handsome
C. new handsome American
4. I used to drive ________ car.
A. a blue old German
B. an old German blue
C. an old blue German
5. He recently married a ________ woman.
A.young beautiful Greek
B. beautiful young Greek
C. beautiful Greek young
6. This is a ________ movie.
A.new Italian wonderful
B. wonderful Italian new
C. wonderful new Italian
7. She is a ________ supermodel.
A. beautiful slim Brazilian
B. Brazilian beautiful slim
C. slim Brazilian beautiful
8. It's in the ________ container.
A. large blue metal
B. blue large metal
C. blue metal large
9. He sat behind a ________ desk.
A. big wooden brown
C. wooden big brown
B. big brown wooden
10. She gave him a ________ vase.
A. small Egyptian black
B. black Egyptian small
C. small black Egyptian