Adjective Order

Find one word to describe each shirt:

check plain spotted striped

Find two words to describe each person:

medium-height overweight shortslim tall well-built

Find two words to describe each person’s hair:

blonde brown curly gingerstraight wavy

Adjective Order

Look at Wayne. We can say he has short brown hair and he’s wearing a new, striped, football shirt. We don’t say he has brown short hair and he’s wearing a football, striped, new shirt.

Why?

brown, short, new, football, and striped are adjectives here.

They tell us something about his hair and his shirt. But when we have more than one adjective before a noun, they usually come in a fixed order. If we take one adjective of each type, they would normally follow the following order.

OpinionAn opinion adjective explains what you think about something (other people may not agree with you).For example: silly, beautiful, horrible, difficult

Size A size adjective, of course, tells you how big or small something is.For example: large, tiny, enormous, little

Age An age adjective tells you how young or old something or someone is.For example: ancient, new, young, old

Shape A shape adjective describes the shape of something.For example: square, round, flat, rectangular

Colour A colour adjective, of course, describes the colour of something.For example: blue, pink, reddish, grey

Origin An origin adjective describes where something comes from.For example: French, American, eastern, Greek

Material A material adjective describes what something is made from.For example: wooden, metal, cotton, paper

Pattern A pattern adjective describes decoration or ornament having such a design.For example: stripe, plain, dotted, spotted

PurposeA purpose adjective describes what something is used for. These adjectives often end with “-ing”.For example: sleeping (as in “sleeping bag”), roasting (as in “roasting tin”)

• Here are some examples of nouns modified with three adjectives in the correct order based on the list above. Notice that the adjectives are not separated by commas.

• A wonderful old Italian clock. (opinion - age - origin)

• A big square blue box. (size - shape - colour)

• A disgusting pink plastic ornament. (opinion - colour - material)

• Some slim new French trousers. (size - age - origin)

Now look at the adjectives below.Three of them go with each

picture on the following slide.

blue brown checkcoffee green kitchenmodernnew office red

small sportsstriped tall work

1. A _ _ _ car. 4. A _ _ _ building.2. A _ _ _ cup. 5. A _ _ _ cloth.3. A _ _ _ shirt.

Order of adjectives.• The words in each phrase below have been

mixed up. Rewrite them in the correct order.1. small pot a flower brown2. and towel white a bath check red3. bookblue grammar a thin4. white bag large a carrier5. big engine a fire red6. tableold dining long a/an7. tie a and school blue striped

white8. train a passenger grey

modern9. motorcycle helmet and striped black

a red10.enormous stadium football white

a/an

1. He wears a ________ shirt. a. dirty old flannel b. flannel old dirty c. old dirty flannel

2. Pass me the ________ cups. a. plastic big blueb. big blue plasticc. big plastic blue

3. All the girls fall in love with the ________ teacher.a. handsome new Americanb. American new handsomec. new handsome American

4. I drive ________ car.a. a blue old Germanb. an old German bluec. an old blue German

5. He recently married a ________ woman.a. young beautiful Greekb. beautiful young Greekc. beautiful Greek young

6. This is a ________ movie.a. new Italian wonderfulb. wonderful Italian newc. wonderful new Italian

7. She is a ________ supermodel. a. beautiful slim Brazilianb. Brazilian beautiful slimc. slim Brazilian beautiful

8. It's in the ________ container.a. large blue metalb. blue large metalc. blue metal large

9. He sits behind a ________ desk. a. big wooden brownb. big brown woodenc. wooden big brown

10.She gives him a ________ vase. a. small Egyptian blackb. black Egyptian smallc. small black Egyptian

Congratulation!

You are wrong!Go back and read

again!

Activity• Identify 5 of your favourite

actors, actresses, singers, athletes, etc. based on his/her appearances

• Present it in front of the class• Example,De Gea is my favourite athlete.He is a handsome tall youngSpanish goalkeeper.