Order of adjectives
A lovely old house, a big red car, a black leather jacket: the usual order when two or more adjectives go before a noun.
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When two or three adjectives come before a noun, English puts them in a fairly fixed order: an adjective of opinion first, then adjectives of fact, such as size, age, colour, origin and material. A lovely old house. A big red car. Native speakers don't think about it, but a different order often sounds wrong to them. In real speech, more than three adjectives before one noun is rare.
Opinion before fact
An opinion adjective says what you think: nice, lovely, beautiful, horrible, interesting, comfortable. A fact adjective says what something is like in a way anyone can see or check: big, old, red, Italian, wooden. Opinion comes first.
- We stayed in a lovely old hotel.
- She's got a beautiful long dress for the wedding.
- It's a horrible grey day.
- Incorrect: It's an old lovely house.
- Correct: It's a lovely old house.Opinion (lovely) comes before fact (old).
The order of fact adjectives
This is the usual order. It is a strong tendency, not a law, and most noun phrases use only one or two of the groups.
Group | Examples |
|---|---|
opinion | lovely, nice, horrible |
size | big, small, long |
age | old, new, young |
shape | round, square |
colour | red, black, grey |
origin | Italian, German, Russian |
material | wooden, leather, glass |
purpose | coffee (cup), running (shoes) |
-
a lovely old wooden table
-
a nice small Italian café
-
a round glass coffee table
-
new black leather running shoes
-
They live in a small white house.
-
He bought a black leather jacket.
-
I'd love a big Italian coffee machine.
- Incorrect:
She was wearing a red long dress.
- Correct:
She was wearing a long red dress.
Size (long) comes before colour (red). - Incorrect:
We've got a wooden old table in the kitchen.
- Correct:
We've got an old wooden table in the kitchen.
Age (old) comes before material (wooden). - Incorrect:
He drives a German black car.
- Correct:
He drives a black German car.
Colour comes before origin.
A noun as the last adjective
A noun or an -ing word can describe another noun, to say what it is for or what kind it is: a coffee cup, running shoes, a sleeping bag, a city map. This word always stands right next to the noun, after all the other adjectives.
- a big coffee cup
- some comfortable walking shoes
- Incorrect: a coffee big cup
- Correct: a big coffee cupThe word that says what the cup is for goes next to the noun.
Commas and and
Before a noun, adjectives from different groups usually have no comma and no and: a lovely old house. Two colours are joined with and: a black and white photo. Two opinion adjectives can have a comma: a friendly, helpful receptionist.
After be and other linking verbs, join the last two adjectives with and: The house was old and beautiful.
The article goes first
A or an goes before all the adjectives and depends on the sound of the first one: an old wooden table, a beautiful old city.
Not too many
Two adjectives are normal and three are possible. With more, the phrase gets heavy, so move some information after the noun or into another sentence: It's a beautiful old house. It's made of stone.
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Where this rule sits
All B1 rulesAdjectives and adverbs: all rules