36795683 adjective order

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In English, it is common to use more than one adjective before a noun -- for example,

"He's a silly young fool," or "she's a smart, energetic woman." When you use more than

one adjective, you have to put them in the right order, according to type. This page will

explain the different types of adjectives and the correct order for them.

The basic types of adjectives

OpinionAn opinion adjective explains what you think aboutsomething (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

AgeAn age adjective tells you how young or old something or

someone is. Examples:

ancient, new, young, old

ShapeA shape adjective describes the shape of something.

Examples:

square, round, flat, rectangular

ColourA colour adjective, of course, describes the colour ofsomething. Examples:

blue, pink, reddish, grey

OriginAn origin adjective describes where something comes from.

Examples:French, lunar, American, eastern, Greek

MaterialA material adjective describes what something is madefrom. 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


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Opinion Size Age Shape Colour Origin Material Purpose

a silly young English man

a huge round metal bowl

a small red sleeping bag

When you are sure that you understand the topic, you can click on "First exercise" below

to continue.

Adjective Order

Type the correct noun phrase, putting the adjectives in order.

1. round / small / reading / lamp

2. German / old / yellow / car3. wooden / huge / sailing / ship

4. physics / boring / old / teacher

5. slim / Canadian / handsome / snowboarder

6. sugar / blue / round / bowl

Choose the correct answer.

Q1 - I bought a pair of _____ shoes.

black leather leather black

Q2 - It was a ____ car.

red fast fast red

Q3 - It's a ____ building.

big round round big

Q4 - I bought ____ knife.

a Swiss army an army Swiss

Q5 - It's ____ film.

a beautiful old an old beautiful

Q6 - He's ____ man.

an unfriendly rich a rich unfriendly

Q7 - It's ____ phone.

a mobile expensive an expensive mobile

Q8 - It's ____ village.

an old lovely a lovely old


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Q9 - The ____ visitors were Japanese.

two last last two

Q10 - He's got ____ eyes.

blue big big blue

Q11 - It's a ____ house.

nice new new nice

Q12 - It's ____ airline.

a popular American an American popular

Q13 - It's ____ company

a family old an old family

Q14 - It's a ____ restaurant.

cheap good good cheap

As indicated below, there are several types of general descriptive adjective, which often occur in a

certain order. However, the order of different types of general descriptive adjective is more flexible

than the order of other types of attributive adjective.

Usual Order of Attributive Adjectives

1) certain determiners such as all, both and half

2) determiners including the articles a, and and the;

possessive adjectives e.g. my, his, her, our and their;

demonstrative adjectives e.g. that, these, this, and those; and

certain other determiners such as another, any, each, either,

enough, every, neither, no, some, what and which

3) cardinal numbers e.g. one, two, three; and

certain other determiners such as few, many and several4) determiners such as fewer, fewest, least, less, more and most

5)general descriptive adjectives, often in the following order:

a) adjectives indicating size e.g. large, long, narrow

b) adjectives indicating weight e.g. heavy, light

c) participles and other adjectives e.g. clever, excited, interesting

d) adjectives indicating temperature e.g. cold, hot, warm

e) adjectives indicating humidity e.g. dry, damp, wet

f) adjectives indicating age e.g. new, six-month-old, young

g) adjectives indicating shape e.g. barrel-shaped, round, square

6) adjectives indicating color e.g. blue, grey, white

7) adjectives indicating materials e.g. cloth, leather, metal8) proper adjectives e.g. American, Victorian

9) defining adjectives, usually indicating purpose, method of operation, location,


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time or categories of people

ii. General descriptive adjectives

c)Participles and other general descriptive adjectives which do not fall into any of the othercategories usually follow adjectives indicating size and weight, and precede other types of

attributive adjective. In the following examples, the adjective alert, and the participles twittering

and excited are underlined.

e.g. two large, alert black cats

eleven tiny, twittering birds

many excited children

[EX: an old, curved stick; a curved, old stick]

d) to g) The order of adjectives indicating temperature, humidity, age and shape is not as

predictable as the order of other attributive adjectives. For instance, adjectives indicatingtemperature occur sometimes before and sometimes after general descriptive adjectives such as

clear and hard.

e.g. clear, cold water

cold, hard ice

It should be noted that the position of attributive adjectives indicating age may be altered to change

the emphasis.

e.g. a new, efficient method

an efficient, new method

In the first example, the adjective new is emphasized. In the second example, the adjective efficient

is emphasized.

numbers usually go before adjectives.First, nextand lastgo before one, two, three :

EX: six large eggs

EX: the second big shock

EX: the first three days

AdjectivesDefinition

Adjectives are words that describe or modify another person or thing in the sentence. TheArticles

a, an, and the are adjectives.

the tall professor

the lugubrious lieutenant

a solid commitment

a month's pay a six-year-old child

the unhappiest, richest man
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If a group of words containing a subject and verb acts as an adjective, it is called an Adjective

Clause. My sister, who is much older than I am, is an engineer. If an adjective clause is stripped of

its subject and verb, the resulting modifier becomes an Adjective Phrase: He is the man who is

keeping my family in the poorhouse.

Before getting into other usage considerations, one general note about the use or over-use of

adjectives: Adjectives are frail; don't ask them to do more work than they should. Let your

broad-shouldered verbs and nouns do the hard work of description. Be particularly cautious in your

use of adjectives that don't have much to say in the first place: interesting, beautiful, lovely,

exciting. It is your job as a writer to create beauty and excitement and interest, and when you simply

insist on its presence withoutshowingit to your reader well, you're convincing no one.

Consider the uses of modifiers in this adjectivally rich paragraph from Thomas Wolfe's Look

Homeward, Angel. (Charles Scribner's, 1929, p. 69.) Adjectives are highlighted in this color;

participles, verb forms acting as adjectives, are highlighted in thisblue. Some people would argue

that words that are part of a name like "East India Tea House are not really adjectival and thatpossessive nouns father's, farmer's are not technically adjectives, but we've included them in

our analysis of Wolfe's text.

He remembered yet the EastIndiaTea House at the Fair, the sandalwood, the turbans, and the

robes, the cool interior and the smell ofIndia tea; and he had felt now the nostalgic thrill ofdew-wet

mornings in Spring, the cherry scent, the coolclarion earth, the wet loaminess of the garden, the

pungentbreakfast smells and the floating snow of blossoms. He knew the inchoatesharp excitement

ofhot dandelions in young earth; in July, of watermelonsbedded in sweet hay, inside a farmer's

covered wagon; of cantaloupe and crated peaches; and the scent oforange rind,bitter-sweet, before

a fire of coals. He knew the goodmale smell of his father's sitting-room; of the smoothwornleather

sofa, with the gaping horse-hair rent; of theblisteredvarnished wood upon the hearth; of the heated

calf-skin bindings; of the flatmoist plug ofapple tobacco, stuckwith a red flag; of wood-smoke and

burnt leaves in October; of thebrowntired autumn earth; of honey-suckle at night; ofwarm

nasturtiums, of a cleanruddy farmer who comes weekly withprinted butter, eggs, and milk; offat

limpunderdone bacon and of coffee; of a bakery-oven in the wind; oflargedeep-hued stringbeans

smoking-hot and seasoned well with salt and butter; of a room ofoldpine boards in which books

and carpets have been stored, long closed; ofConcord grapes in theirlongwhite baskets.

An abundance of adjectives like this would be uncommon in contemporary prose. Whether we have

lost something or not is left up to you.

Position of Adjectives

Unlike Adverbs, which often seem capable of popping up almost anywhere in a sentence,

adjectives nearly always appear immediately before the noun or noun phrase that they modify.

Sometimes they appear in a string of adjectives, and when they do, they appear in a set order

according to category. (SeeBelow.) When indefinite pronouns such as something, someone,

anybody are modified by an adjective, the adjective comes after the pronoun:

Anyone capable of doing something horrible to someone nice should be punished.

Something wicked this way comes.

And there are certain adjectives that, in combination with certain words, are always "postpositive"

(coming after the thing they modify):
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The president elect, heir apparent to the Glitzy fortune, lives in New York proper.

See, also, the note on a- adjectives, below, for the position of such words as "ablaze, aloof, aghast."

Degrees of Adjectives

Adjectives can express degrees of modification:

Gladys is a rich woman, but Josie is richerthan Gladys, and Sadie is the richestwoman in

town.

The degrees of comparison are known as the positive, the comparative, and the superlative. (Actually,

only the comparative and superlative show degrees.) We use the comparative for comparing two things

and the superlative for comparing three or more things. Notice that the word than frequently

accompanies the comparative and the word the precedes the superlative. The inflected suffixes -erand-estsuffice to form most comparatives and superlatives, although we need -ierand -iestwhen a two-

syllable adjective ends iny (happier and happiest); otherwise we use more and mostwhen an adjective

has more than one syllable.

Positive Comparative Superlative

rich richer richest

lovely lovelier loveliest

beautiful more beautiful most beautiful

Certain adjectives have irregular forms in the comparative and superlative degrees:

Irregular Comparative and Superlative Forms

good better best

bad worse worst

little less least

muchmany

some

more most

far further furthest

Be careful not to form comparatives or superlatives of adjectives which already express an extreme

of comparison unique, for instance although it probably is possible to form comparative

forms of most adjectives: something can be more perfect, and someone can have afullerfigure.

People who argue that one woman cannot be more pregnantthan another have never been nine-

months pregnant with twins.
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Grammar's Response

According to Bryan Garner, "complete" is one of those adjectives that does notadmit of

comparative degrees. We could say, however, "more nearly complete." I am sure that I have not

been consistent in my application of this principle in the Guide (I can hear myself, now, saying

something like "less adequate" or "more preferable" or "less fatal"). Other adjectives that Garner

would include in this list are as follows:

absolute impossible principal

adequate inevitable stationary

chief irrevocable sufficient

complete main unanimous

devoid manifest unavoidableentire minor unbroken

fatal paramount unique

final perpetual universal

ideal preferable whole

From The Oxford Dictionary of American Usage and Styleby Bryan Garner. Copyright 1995 by

Bryan A. Garner. Published by Oxford University Press, Inc., www.oup-usa.org, and used with thegracious consent of Oxford University Press.

Be careful, also, not to use more along with a comparative adjective formed with -ernor to use

mostalong with a superlative adjective formed with -est(e.g., do not write that something is more

heavier or most heaviest).

The as as construction is used to create a comparison expressing equality:

He is as foolish as he is large.

She is as bright as her mother.

Premodifiers with Degrees of Adjectives

Both adverbs and adjectives in their comparative and superlative forms can be accompanied by

premodifiers, single words and phrases, that intensify the degree.

We were a lot more careful this time.

He works a lot less carefully than the other jeweler in town.

We like his work so much better.

You'll get your watch back all the faster.

The same process can be used to downplay the degree:


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The weather this week has been somewhat better.

He approaches his schoolwork a little less industriously than his brother does.

And sometimes a set phrase, usually an informal noun phrase, is used for this purpose:

He arrived a whole lot sooner than we expected.

That's a heck of a lot better.

If the intensifiervery accompanies the superlative, a determiner is also required:

She is wearing her very finest outfit for the interview.

They're doing the very best they can.

Occasionally, the comparative or superlative form appears with a determiner and the thing being

modified is understood:

Of all the wines produced in Connecticut, I like this one the most.

The quicker you finish this project, the better.

Of the two brothers, he is by far the faster.

Authority for this section:A University Grammar of English by Randolph Quirk and Sidney

Greenbaum. Longman Group: Essex, England. 1993. Used with permission.

Less versus Fewer

When making a comparison between quantities we often have to make a choice between the words fewera

Generally, when we're talking about countable things, we use the wordfewer; when we're talking about me

quantities that we cannot count, we use the word less. "She had fewer chores, but she also had less energy.

managers at our local Stop & Shop seem to have mastered this: they've changed the signs at the so-called e

lanes from "Twelve Items or Less" to "Twelve Items or Fewer." Whether that's an actual improvement, we'

up to you.

We do, however, definitely use less when referring to statistical or numerical expressions:

It's less than twenty miles to Dallas.

He's less than six feet tall. Your essay should be a thousand words or less.

We spent less than forty dollars on our trip.

The town spent less than four percent of its budget on snow removal.

In these situations, it's possible to regard the quantities assums of countable measures.

Taller than I / me ??

When making a comparison with "than" do we end with a subject form or object form, "taller than I/she" o

than me/her." The correct response is "taller than I/she." We are looking for the subject form: "He is taller

am/she is tall." (Except we leave out the verb in the second clause, "am" or "is.") Some good writers, howe

argue that the word "than" should be allowed to function as a preposition. If we can say "He is tall like me/


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then (if "than" could be prepositional like like) we should be able to say, "He is taller than me/her." It's an

interesting argument, but for now, anyway in formal, academic prose, use the subject form in such

comparisons.

We also want to be careful in a sentence such as "I like him better than she/her." The "she" would mean th

like this person better than she likes him; the "her" would mean that you like this male person better than y

that female person. (To avoid ambiguity and the slippery use ofthan, we could write "I like him better tha

does" or "I like him better than I like her.")

More than / over ??

In the United States, we usually use "more than" in countable numerical expressions meaning "in excess o

"over." In England, there is no such distinction. For instance, in the U.S., some editors would insist on "mo

40,000 traffic deaths in one year," whereas in the UK, "over 40,000 traffic deaths" would be acceptable. E

U.S., however, you will commonly hear "over" in numerical expressions of age, time, or height: "His sisterforty; she's over six feet tall. We've been waiting well over two hours for her."

The Order of Adjectives in a Series

It would take a linguistic philosopher to explain why we say "little brown house" and not "brown

little house" or why we say "red Italian sports car" and not "Italian red sports car." The order in

which adjectives in a series sort themselves out is perplexing for people learning English as a

second language. Most other languages dictate a similar order, but not necessarily the same order. It

takes a lot of practice with a language before this order becomes instinctive, because the order often

seems quite arbitrary (if not downright capricious). There is, however, a pattern. You will find

many exceptions to the pattern in the table below, but it is definitely important to learn the pattern

of adjective order if it is not part of what you naturally bring to the language.

The categories in the following table can be described as follows:

I. Determiners articles and other limiters. SeeDeterminers

II. Observation postdeterminers and limiter adjectives (e.g., a real hero, a perfect idiot) and

adjectives subject to subjective measure (e.g., beautiful, interesting)

III. Size and Shape adjectives subject to objective measure (e.g., wealthy, large, round)

IV. Age adjectives denoting age (e.g., young, old, new, ancient)V. Color adjectives denoting color (e.g., red, black, pale)

VI. Origin denominal adjectives denoting source of noun (e.g., French, American, Canadian)

VII. Material denominal adjectives denoting what something is made of (e.g., woolen,

metallic, wooden)

VIII. Qualifier final limiter, often regarded as part of the noun (e.g., rocking chair, hunting

cabin, passenger car, book cover)

THE ROYAL ORDER OF ADJECTIVES

Determiner Observation Physical Description Origin Material Qualifier No

Size Shape Age Color
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a beautiful old Italian touring car

an expensive antique silver mirro

four gorgeous

long-

stemmed red silk roses

her short black hair

our big old English sheep

those square wooden hat boxe

that dilapidated little hunting cabin

several enormous young American basketball playe

some delicious Thai food

This chart is probably too wide to print on a standard piece of paper. If you clickHERE,you will get a one-page duplicate of this chart, which you can print out on a regular pieceof paper.

It would be folly, of course, to run more than two or three (at the most) adjectives together.

Furthermore, when adjectives belong to the same class, they become what we call coordinated

adjectives, and you will want to put a comma between them: the inexpensive, comfortable shoes.

The rule for inserting the comma works this way: if you could have inserted a conjunction and

orbut between the two adjectives, use a comma. We could say these are "inexpensive but

comfortable shoes," so we would use a comma between them (when the "but" isn't there). When

you have three coordinated adjectives, separate them all with commas, but don't insert a comma

between the last adjective and the noun (in spite of the temptation to do so because you often pause

there):

a popular, respected, and good looking student

See the section on Commas for additional help in punctuating coordinated adjectives.

Capitalizing Proper Adjectives

When an adjective owes its origins to a proper noun, it should probably be capitalized. Thus wewrite about Christian music, French fries, the English Parliament, the Ming Dynasty, a Faulknerian

style, Jeffersonian democracy. Some periods of time have taken on the status of proper adjectives:

the Nixon era, a Renaissance/Romantic/Victorian poet (but a contemporary novelist and medieval

writer). Directional and seasonal adjectives are not capitalized unless they're part of a title:

We took the northwest route during the spring thaw. We stayed there until the town's annual Fall

Festival of Small Appliances.

See the section on Capitalization for further help on this matter.

Collective Adjectives
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When the definite article, the, is combined with an adjective describing a class or group of people,

the resulting phrase can act as a noun: the poor, the rich, the oppressed, the homeless, the lonely, the

unlettered, the unwashed, the gathered, the dear departed. The difference between a Collective

Noun (which is usually regarded as singular but which can be plural in certain contexts) and a

collective adjective is that the latter is always plural and requires a plural verb:

The rural poor have been ignored by the media.

The rich of Connecticut are responsible.

The elderly are beginning to demand their rights.

The young at heart are always a joy to be around.

Adjectival Opposites

The opposite or the negative aspect of an adjective can be formed in a number of ways. One way, of

course, is to find an adjective to mean the opposite an antonym. The opposite ofbeautifulis

ugly, the opposite oftallisshort. A thesaurus can help you find an appropriate opposite. Another

way to form the opposite of an adjective is with a number of prefixes. The opposite offortunate is

unfortunate, the opposite ofprudentis imprudent, the opposite ofconsiderate is inconsiderate, the

opposite ofhonorable is dishonorable, the opposite ofalcoholic is nonalcoholic, the opposite of

being properlyfiledis misfiled. If you are not sure of the spelling of adjectives modified in this way

by prefixes (or which is the appropriate prefix), you will have to consult a dictionary, as the rules

for the selection of a prefix are complex and too shifty to be trusted. The meaning itself can be

tricky; for instance, flammable and inflammable mean the same thing.

A third means for creating the opposite of an adjective is to combine it with less orleastto create a

comparison which points in the opposite direction. Interesting shades of meaning and tone become

available with this usage. It is kinder to say that "This is the least beautiful city in the state." than it

is to say that "This is the ugliest city in the state." (It also has a slightly different meaning.) A

candidate for a job can still be worthy and yet be "less worthy of consideration" than another

candidate. It's probably not a good idea to use this construction with an adjective that is already a

negative: "He is less unlucky than his brother," although that is not the same thing as saying he is

luckier than his brother. Use the comparative less when the comparison is between two things or

people; use the superlative leastwhen the comparison is among many things or people.

My mother is less patient than my father. Of all the new sitcoms, this is my least favorite show.

Some Adjectival Problem Children

Good versus Well

In both casual speech and formal writing, we frequently have to choose between the adjective goodand the

well. With most verbs, there is no contest: when modifying a verb, use the adverb.

He swims well.He knows only too well who the murderer is.

However, when using alinking verb or a verb that has to do with the five human senses, you want to use t
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adjective instead.

How are you? I'm feeling good, thank you.

After a bath, the baby smells so good.

Even after my careful paint job, this room doesn't look good.

Many careful writers, however, will use wellafter linking verbs relating to health, and this is perfectly all r

fact, to say that you aregoodor that you feelgoodusually implies not only that you're OK physically but a

your spirits are high.

"How are you?"

"I am well, thank you."

Bad versus Badly

When your cat died (assuming you loved your cat), did you feel badorbadly? Applying the same rule that

goodversus well, use the adjective form after verbs that have to do with human feelings. You felt bad. If y

felt badly, it would mean that something was wrong with your faculties for feeling.

Other Adjectival Considerations

Review the section onCompound Nouns and Modifiers for the formation of modifiers created

when words are connected: a four-year-old child, a nineteenth-century novel, an empty-headed fool.

Review the section onPossessives for a distinction between possessive forms and "adjectivallabels." (Do you belong to a Writers Club or a Writers' Club?)

Adjectives that are really Participles, verb forms with -ingand -edendings, can be troublesome for

some students. It is one thing to be afrightenedchild; it is an altogether different matter to be a

frighteningchild. Do you want to go up to your professor after class and say that you are confused

or that you are confusing? Generally, the -edending means that the noun so described ("you") has a

passive relationship with something something (the subject matter, the presentation) has

bewildered you and you are confused. The -ingending means that the noun described has a more

active role you are not making any sense so you are confusing (to others, including your

professor).

The -edending modifiers are often accompanied by prepositions (these are not the only choices):

We were amazed at all the circus animals.

We were amused by the clowns.

We were annoyed by the elephants.

We werebored by the ringmaster.

We were confused by the noise.

We were disappointed by the motorcycle daredevils.

We were disappointed in their performance.

We were embarrassed bymy brother.

We were exhausted from all the excitement. We were excited bythe lion-tamer.

We were excited about the high-wire act, too.
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We were frightened by the lions.

We were introduced to the ringmaster.

We were interested in the tent.

We were irritated by the heat.

We were opposed to leaving early. We were satisfied with the circus.

We were shocked at the level of noise under the big tent.

We were surprised by the fans' response.

We were surprised at their indifference.

We were tired ofall the lights after a while.

We were worried about the traffic leaving the parking lot.

A- Adjectives

The most common of the so-called a- adjectives are ablaze, afloat, afraid, aghast, alert, alike, alive,alone, aloof, ashamed, asleep, averse, awake, aware. These adjectives will primarily show up as

predicate adjectives (i.e., they come after a linking verb).

The children were ashamed.

The professor remained aloof.

The trees were ablaze.

Occasionally, however, you will find a- adjectives before the word they modify: the alert patient,

the aloof physician. Most of them, when found before the word they modify, are themselves

modified: the nearly awake student, the terribly alone scholar. And a- adjectives are sometimes

modified by "very much": very much afraid, very much alone, very much ashamed, etc.

Recognizing Adjectives

How's that? Are there any problems? YES, there are problems! The ORDER of adjectives is

quite important in English. There is an order of adjectives that native speakers of English normally

follow. The list below shows how the order of adjectives is usually presented; however, there are

exceptions and different combinations depending on the situation.
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OPINION APPEARANCE AGE COLOR ORIGIN MATERIAL

good

bad

beautifulugly

smart

dumb

usually follows

this order:

size/measure

big

small

high

low

shape

round

circular

square

condition

broken

cracked

ripped

fresh

rotten

new

antique

oldyoung

two-

year-

old*

red

purple

pinkdark

green

navy

blue

Korean

Chinese

FrenchItalian

American

iron

brass

cottongold

wooden

vegetable

*Adjectives are never plural. Therefore, when the adjectivecontains a number and noun, the noun associated with thenumber is singular.

This is a three-year-old car. CORRECT

This is a three-years-old car. INCORRECT

Using the above list, we can put all four adjectives together to get the following sentence:

I want to buy a beautiful, new, blue,Europeancar.

Adding adjectives is very important if you want to make your writing more interesting. Ithelps the reader/listener form a picture in his/her mind.

For example, which of these two sentences is more descriptive and interesting? Whichdraws a picture in the reader's mind?

1 I want to buy a car.

-OR-2 I want to buy a beautiful, new, blue, European car.


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Of course the second sentence is more descriptive and interesting. The reader can seethe car in his/her mind. If you would like to learn more ways to make your writinginteresting, please see our other lessons on this topic. Just go tohttp://www.MyEnglishTeacher.net/previous.html.

Quiz

Directions: Look at the following sentences and adjectives. Rewrite the sentences usingthe adjectives in blue. Be sure to write them in the correct order.

1. Aunt Betty wants a coffee table. (stone, square, gray)

2. The king took a trip. (2-week, exhausting)

3. These are cookies! (chocolate chip, delicious, huge)

4. Alice prefers furniture. (leather, Italian, black)

5. Archeologists get very excited when they find bones. (animal, large, prehistoric)

1. Aunt Betty wants a square, gray, stone coffee table.

2. The king took an exhausting,2-week trip.

*exhausting refers to opinion

3. These are delicious, huge, chocolate chip cookies!

*chocolate chip refers to a material used to make the cookies

4. Alice prefers black, Italian, leatherfurniture.

5. Archeologists get very excited when they find large, prehistoric, animal bones.

*prehistoric refers to age

Word Order for Adjectives Exercise at Auto-English

Below you can see a diagram explaining the position of adjectives before a noun. Use it to answer thequestions which follow.

OPINION CONDITION SIZE AGE COLOUR ORIGIN MATERIAL NOUN

Order the words in the boxes.

my teacher old maths smelly

1 ___________________________________

new a perfect system

8

___________________________________
http://www.myenglishteacher.net/previous.htmlhttp://www.myenglishteacher.net/previous.html


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black small box Turkish a old

2 ___________________________________

18th century a Scottish fantastic castle

9

___________________________________

man a fat friendly young

3 ___________________________________

a businessmanhorrible

greedy

10 ___________________________________

tall our headmaster boring

4 ___________________________________

a big old brown bear

11 ___________________________________

wooden dark a table long

5 ___________________________________

student self-righteous a middle-class

12 ___________________________________

city

a Spanish beautiful old

6 ___________________________________

spoilt boy nasty a little

13 ___________________________________

arts nice teacher French our

7 ___________________________________

green-eyed gorgeous black-haired a girl

14 ___________________________________

Word Order for Adjectives Exercise answers

OPINION CONDITION SIZE AGE COLOUR ORIGIN MATERIAL NOUN


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1

Mys

mellyoldmathst

eacher

my teacher old maths smelly

2 a small old black Turkish box

black smallbox

Turkish

a old

3 a friendly fat young man

man a fat friendly young

4 our boring tall headmaster

tallour

headmaster boring

5 a long dark wooden table

woodendark

a table long

6 a beautiful old Spanish city

city

a Spanish beautiful old

7 our nice French arts teacher

arts nice teacherour

French

8 a perfect new system

new a perfect system

9 a fantastic 18th century Scottish castle

18thcentury

a Scottish fantastic castle

10 a horrible greedy businessman

a business horrible greedy

11 a big old brown bear

a big old brown bear

12 a self-righteous middle-class student

studentself-righteous

amiddle-class

13 a nasty spoilt little boy

spoiltboy

nasty a little

14 a gorgeous black-haired green-eyed girl

green-eyed

gorgeous

black-haired a girl

Adjective OrderCILL Home

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Adjectives cannot be written in any order. There are rules, so you

should use the following order:

1. Determiner or article

Determiners e.g. this, that, these, those, my, mine,

your, yours, him, his, her, hers, they, their, Sam's ; or Articles - a, an, the

2. Opinion adjective

e.g. polite, fun, cute, difficult, hard-working

3. Size, including adjectives, comparatives and superlatives

height; e.g. tall, short, high, low; taller, tallest

width; e.g. wide, narrow, thin, slim; wider, widest

length; e.g. long, short; longer, longest

volume; e.g. fat, huge; fatter, fattest

4. Shape

e.g. circular, oval, triangular, square, 5-sided, hexagonal,

irregular

5. Age

e.g. new, young, adolescent, teenage, middle-aged, old,

ancient

6. Colour

e.g. red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, white, grey,

black, black and white, light blue, dark red, pale blue, reddishbrown, off-white, bright green, warm yellow
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7. Nationality

e.g. Hong Kong, Chinese, English, American, Canadian,

Japanese

8. Religione.g. Buddhist, Taoist, Christian, Moslem, pagan, atheist

9. Material

e.g. wood, plastic, metal, ceramic, paper, silk

10. Noun used as an adjective

e.g. campus (as in 'campus activities')

11. The noun that the adjectives are describing.

Sentence structure:Together the article or determiner, adjective(s) and noun(s) make a

'noun phrase'. Noun phrases can also have adverbs describing the

adjectives; e.g. nearly circular; and can also have relative clauses,

although these are not discussed on this page.

Style:

Although it is possible to write a sentence that uses all the categories;

e.g. 'my beautiful, long, curving, new, pink, western, Christian, silk

wedding dress', it is bad style as it is too long. Try to use less than

five adjectives in a single list. Therefore you could say "Have you

seen my beautiful new cream silk wedding dress? It's long and

curving, and is in western Christian style."

How to remember the order

You can use the 'Roman room' memorisation technique. This involves

remembering a place that you know well, such as your home, and

imagining walking through it, looking at things.

12. Imagine that you arrive at the door of your home. On the door

is the letter 'A', and you are greeted by someone who lives

there. This helps you to remember the article 'A' or thedeterminer(s); e.g. my Mother's.

13. Imagine that you are happy to see each other. This helps you

to remember the opinion adjective.

14. Imagine the size of your home: is it big, small, or long? This

helps you to remember the size adjectives.

15. Imagine that you go into your home and you see an object.

Remember the shape of the object.

16. Now imagine that you walk around your home; e.g. towards

your room. Think of another object further from the door.

Think of the age of that object; e.g. new or old.

17. Move on to another object, this time a colourful one.Remember what colourit is.


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18. Move on to another object. This object should remind you of a

foreign place; e.g. a picture of somewhere in China, or a

souvenir from a holiday abroad. This is to help you remember

nationality.

19. Next imagine moving to another object, this time a religiousone. Maybe you have a place for worshipping your ancestors,

or a statue of Buddha.

20. Next move to another object. This should be special because it

is made of one material; e.g. a crystal ornament or a wooden

statue.

21. Finally move to a place where there is an object that is

described with 2 words, and the first is a noun; e.g. a book

shelf. Imagine that this is the end of your journey around your

flat.

Correct the order of the adjectives and nouns in the following

sentences, then click the 'See Answer' buttons to see the correct

noun phrases:

Aim:

This page is to help you write good e-mail messages.

Instructions:

Read the guidelines below, then do the activity.

E-mail Guidelines

E-mail: InboxTo: All members of staff

From: Jennifer Ranford

Date: 10 May 2010

Subject: E-mail Writing Guidelines

Please note and follow the guidelines below concerning the writing of company e-mail

messages.

1. Subjects

Give the message a subject/title. E-mail messages without a subject may not be opened

because of a fear of viruses and especially note that it is very easy to forget to type this

important information.

2. Subject contents

Keep the subject short and clear but avoid such headings as:

Good News, Hello, Message from Mary. These headings are common in messagescontaining viruses. Short but specific headings are needed,

e.g. Order No. 2348X
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21/24

Delayed Shipment

Laboratory Equipment Order

3. Greetings

Start the message with a greeting so as to help create a friendly but business-like tone. The

choice of using the other name versus the surname will depend on who you are writing to. If

you have communicated with the receiver previously and he/she is at a similar level to you,

then the use of the other name would be appropriate. If the receiver is more senior to you, or

if you are in doubt, it would be safer (particularly in the first communication) to use the

persons surname/family name together with a title,

e.g. Dear Mr Smithson, Dear Ms Stringer.

It is also becoming quite common to write the greeting without a comma,

e.g. Dear Miss Lawson

e.g. Dear KK

4. Purpose

Start with a clear indication of what the message is about in the first paragraph.

Give full details in the following paragraph(s).

Make sure that the final paragraph indicates what should happen next.

e.g. I will send a messenger to your office on Tuesday morning to collect the faulty goods.

e.g. Please let me have your order by the beginning of the month.

5. Action

Any action that you want the reader to do should be clearly described, using politeness

phrases. Subordinates should use expressions such as 'Could you...' or ' I would be gratefulif...'. Superior staff should also use polite phrases, for example, 'Please...'.

6. Attachments

Make sure you refer, in the main message, to any attachments you are adding and of course

make extra sure that you remember to include the attachment(s). As attachments can

transmit viruses, try not to use them, unless you are sending complicated documents. Copy-

and-paste text-only contents into the body of the e-mail. If you use an attachment, make sure

the file name describes the content, and is not too general; e.g. 'message.doc' is bad, but 'QA

Report 2010.doc' is good.

7. EndingsEnd the message in a polite way. Common endings are:

Yours sincerely, Best regards, Best wishes, Regards,

If you did not put a comma after the greeting at the beginning of the message, then do not

put a comma after the ending either,

e.g. Best wishes

e.g. Regards

8. Names

Include your name at the end of the message. It is most annoying to receive an email which

does not include the name of the sender. The problem is that often the email address of the

sender does not indicate exactly who it is from, e.g. [email protected]

Please follow these guidelines with all e-mail messages that you send.


22/24

Kind regards

Jennifer Ranford

Human Resources Manager

Activity

Instructions:

Choose the best options from the drop-down boxes below, then press the 'Send' button.


23/24

language, for example, boss to employee language, when talking to someone of higher status than

you.

Instructions: Read the e-mail and then answer the questions:

Questions

a. Do you think Sally is senior, junior or approximately equal to David?

[See Answer]

.

b. Which parts of the text that indicate this?

[See Answer]

.

c. Although it is not necessary for names to be included in an e-mail (since they are written atthe top), Sally has done this. Why?

[See Answer]

.

d. Why has Sally used numbered points in this e-mail?

[See Answer]

.

e. What are the examples of informal language in the e-mail?

[See Answer]


24/24

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36795683 adjective order

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