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