Order of adjectives

Sometimes we use more than one adjective in front of a noun:

          He was a nice intelligent young man.
          She had a small round black wooden box.

Opinion adjectives:

Some adjectives give a general opinion. We can use these adjectives to describe almost any noun:

good	bad	lovely	strange
beautiful	nice	brilliant	excellent
awful	important	wonderful	nasty

   

Some adjectives give a specific opinion. We only use these adjectives to describe particular kinds of noun:

          Food: tasty; delicious

          Furniture, buildings: comfortable; uncomfortable

          People, animals: clever; intelligent; friendly

We usually put a general opinion in front of a specific opinion:

          Nice tasty soup.

          A nasty uncomfortable armchair

          A lovely intelligent animal

Usually we put an adjective that gives an opinion in front of an adjective that is descriptive:

          a nice red dress; a silly old man; those horrible yellow curtains

We often have two adjectives in front of a noun:

          a handsome young man; a big black car; that horrible big dog

Sometimes we have three adjectives, but this is unusual:

          a nice handsome young man;

          a big black American car;

          that horrible big fierce dog

It is very unusual to have more than three adjectives.

Adjectives usually come in this order:

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
General opinion	Specific opinion	Size	Shape	Age	Colour	Nationality	Material

     

We use some adjectives only after a link verb:

afraid	alive	alone	asleep
content	glad	ill	ready
sorry	sure	unable	well

   

Some of the commonest -ed adjectives are normally used only after a link verb:

          annoyed; finished; bored; pleased; thrilled

We say:

          Our teacher was ill.
          My uncle was very glad when he heard the news.
          The policeman seemed to be very annoyed

but we do not say:

          We had an ill teacher.
          When he heard the news he was a very glad uncle
          He seemed to be a very annoyed policeman

A few adjectives are used only in front of a noun:

north     south   east   west

northern     southern   eastern   western

countless   occasional     lone

eventful     indoor   outdoor

We say:

          He lives in the eastern district.
          There were countless problems with the new machinery.

but we do not say:

          The district he lives in is eastern
          The problems with the new machinery were countless.