Order of Adjectives

Adjectives describe nouns and pronouns.  If there are some adjectives which describe one noun, they go in a special order. 

number, opinion, size, shape, condition, age, color, pattern, origin, material, purpose

Opinion adjectives (wonderful, lovely, etc.) go before fact adjectives (big, leather, etc.).

“She lives in a lovely big flat. She bought a beautiful leather bag.” [1, p.143] (opinion, size)

That’s a wonderful large rectangular black Chinese wooden linen chest. (opinion, size, shape, color, origin, material, purpose) [1, p.143] 

 

“The gypsy camp was in the field just off the main road, full of shabby cars and lorries. But one painted wooden caravan stood out like a bright flower.” [2, p.123] (number, pattern, material)

 

 

Sources:

1. Evans, V. and Doodley, J. (2011). New Round-Up 5. Pearson Education Limited.
2. Story Teller Part 5. (1983). Marshall Cavendish Limited, pp.122-126.
3. University of California, Irvine (2018). Adjectives and adjective clauses.Available at: https://www.coursera.org/learn/adjective-clauses/lecture/Wp2xl/adjective-order-lecture [Accessed 1 Sep. 2018].