There are six common types of descriptive adjectives.
- age
- size
- material
- shape
- colour
- nationality
What is the correct order of these adjectives?
Opinion adjectives (e.g. beautiful, fantastic, terrible etc.) precede descriptive adjectives.
Be a deductive language detective and use your deductive reasoning to find out what the correct order of these six descriptive adjectives is: Read the following dialogue where two friends comment on the contents of their rich friend’s house. Opinion adjectives are in italics and all descriptive adjectives are in bold print.
- A: David really has a nice big house!
- B: He sure does. And I like the beautiful red wooden door with that old yellow bell.
- A: Did you see the big round Indonesian teak table in his study?
- B: Do you mean that big old black table?
- A: Yes, that one. Isn’t it nice?
- B: No, I think it’s just an enormous old round thing. I prefer that small round red table he has in the kitchen. The plastic one.
- A: No, I think red plastic looks cheap*.
(* cheap in this case is used as an opinion adjective.) - B: But you can’t say that the elegant big crystal table he has in the dining room isn’t nice, can you?
- A: Oh, that round Italian crystal table? Beautiful!
- B: And what a wonderful green Italian leather sofa!
- A: That long green couch? No, I didn’t like it – too green! But I did like the small modern red chairs he has. Adds a very nice touch.
- B: Those round red plastic chairs? I thought you didn’t like red plastic.
- A: But those are nice. Let’s say that it’s wonderful to have enough money to buy small red French plastic chairs, isn’t it?
How good a language detective are you?
What is the correct order of these six categories of descriptive adjectives?
Descriptive adjectives usually occur in the following order:
| EVALUATION/OPINION | APPEARANCE | AGE | COLOR | ORIGIN |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| beautiful | SIZE / MEASURE | new-born | red | GEOGRAPHICAL |
| good | big / large | old | green | French |
| bad | small / little | young | blue | Mexican |
| ugly | low | new | light-yellow | Japanese |
| interesting | high | antique | striped | mountain |
| fascinating | heavy | ancient | dark blue | beach |
| intelligent | SHAPE | five-year-old | deep purple | MATERIAL |
| pretty | triangular | brand-new | pink | ceramic |
| unsightly | square | five-day-old | brown | cotton |
| foul | CONDITION | century-old | rose | wooden |
| stupid | chipped | mature | olive | brass |
| silly | broken | middle-age | aqua | polyester |
| ridiculous | rotten | teenage | lime | metal |
| easy | shiny | prehistoric | polka-dot | paper |
Examples:
| SENTENCE | EVAL | APPEARANCE / QUALITY | AGE | COLOR | ORIGIN/MATERIAL | NOUN + REST OF SENTENCE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Who left a | foul, | rotten, | two-week-old | banana in my desk drawer? | ||
| We bought a | practical, | little, | black-and-white plaid, | polyester | seat cover. | |
| They wore a | beautiful, | life-size, | red-and-yellow | feathered, Chinese-dragon | costume. | |
| The artist created a | fantastic, | huge, mobius-shaped, | shiny, | stainless-steel | sculpture. | |
| The | intelligent, | little, | young, | black, | French | poodle stood quiety. |
| “Olodum” is known for its | powerful, | hypnotic, energetic | Samba-reggae | rhythms and performance. |
Notes about Descriptive Adjectives
Another way to remember the order of descriptive adjectives is that they usually go from more general to more specific adjectives, or from an adjective which can describe more items to one which describes a more limited number of items.
- For example, another category of descriptive adjectives is function which is more specific than most of the other descriptive adjectives. Where would you put the function of dining in the list of adjectives which describe a table: Italian, antique, wooden
Usually, the word order in the “appearance” category is size, shape, condition, but other variations occur as well.
| APPEARANCE: | SIZE | SHAPE | CONDITION | NOUN PHRASE |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | tall | round | out-of-breath | 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. |
thanx!