Adjectives - Word Order

Adjectives
Word Order	Framed \| Unframed

Read & Compare

Descriptive adjectives usually occur in the following order:

A pretty, little, purple and pink, paisley pussy-cat

adjectives
EVALUATION/OPINION	APPEARANCE	AGE	COLOR	ORIGIN
beautiful	SIZE/MEASURE	new-born	red	GEOGRAPHICAL
good	big	old	green	French
bad	small	young	blue	Mexican
ugly	low	new	light-yellow	Japanese
interesting	high	antique	striped	MATERIAL
fascinating	heavy	ancient	dark blue	ceramic
intelligent	SHAPE		deep purple	cotton
pretty	triangular		pink	wooden
unsightly	square		brown	brass
	CONDITION
	chipped
	broken
	rotten

Variations

Other word-order can occur within the category "appearance".

Usually the order is size, shape, condition:

A tall, round, out-of -condition man sat breathing heavily on the park bench.
A tall, out-of -condition, round, man sat breathing heavily on the park bench.
An out-of -condition, tall, round, man sat breathing heavily on the park bench.

Speakers do infrequently use more than three or four adjectives before a noun:

*The intelligent, little, young, black, French poodle sat next to his owner in a Paris cafe. (Too many adjectives!)

Practice

Select the correct word order.

Double click on the button to check your answer. * indicates your choice sounds awkward / bad.

example
#	YOUR RESPONSE	IMAGE
1.	An gopher complained about a misdirected golf ball. angry, little, brown brown, angry, little
2.	A(n) sports car was parked in front of the restaurant . Italian, beautiful, new beautiful, new, Italian
3.	A barber pole was next to the front door of the barber shop. big, red and white, striped big, striped, red and white
4.	A boy was chopping wood in the backyard. strong, little, young little, strong, young
5.	She wore her pumps. high-heeled, black, suede high-heeled, suede, black	"pump" style shoe
6.	You can't take your knife with you on an airplane . Swiss Army, red red, Swiss Army
7.	We put a(n) tree in the corner of their office. ugly, tiny, artificial artificial, tiny, ugly
8.	My uncle bought a TV. high-definition,brand-new, plasma brand-new, high-definition, plasma
9.	She offered me tea in a cup . ceramic, small, chipped small, chipped, ceramic
10.	The elf lived in a house in the forest. charming, little, mushroom charming, mushroom, little

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Julie Sevastopoulos - College of San Mateo - San Mateo, CA 94402 USA