ORDER OF ADJECTIVES

Copyright British Council

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

S
ome 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.

Try these tasks to improve your adjective ordering.

EXERCISE 1
EXERCISE 2
EXERCISE 3