Adjective Order

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This is a basic level post because there isn’t much we can teach you about it…you already know how to do it, whether you realise it or not. Adjective order is one of those things that we all absorb as we are learning and using language. In fact, the only time linguists discuss it is in upper level classes as they analyse grammar. They study it, but mostly out of curiosity. There are no firm rules, so there’s nothing to get wrong…but if you do it incorrectly, everyone will know.

In English, we have ‘little old ladies’ but not ‘old little ladies’. We also have ‘old white hankies’ not ‘white old hankies’. Also consider ‘the big new square blue wooden house’ as opposed to ‘the wooden blue square new big house’. The jumbled ones aren’t necessarily wrong, they just sound strange. So, what is the correct order? Most linguists agree that it is opinion, size, condition, age, shape, colour, pattern, origin, material, and purpose.

Adjectives in order with examples

  • Opinion
    • Limiting
      • a real hero, a perfect idiot
    • Subjective measure
      • beautiful, ugly, interesting, silly, horrible, difficult, nice
    • Value
      • good, bad, costly
  • Size
    • tiny, big, extensive, large, enormous, little
  • Condition
    • broken, cold, hot, wet, hungry, rich, easy, difficult, dirty, tattered, rusted
  • Age
    • young, old, new, ancient, six-year-old
  • Shape
    • square, round, sharp, swollen, flat, rectangular, long
  • Colour
    • white, black, pale, blue, pink, reddish, grey
  • Pattern
    • striped, spotted, checked, flowery
  • Origin
    • American, French, Greek, eastern, volcanic, extraterrestrial, lunar
  • Material
    • woollen, cotton, metallic, brick, linen, wooden, paper, cloth, silk
  • Purpose (sometimes forms part of a compound noun, often -ing)
    • rocking chair, hunting cabin, sleeping bag, frying pan, curling iron, book cover, passenger car

So you could put a bunch together and sound like this:

  • A nice, little, old, round, white, brick house
  • The beautiful, big, wet, new, flat, blue, checked, French, linen, writing papers
  • The ugly, small, rusted, ancient, long, grey, spotted, eastern, metal, curling iron

Keep in mind though, if you do use such a long string of adjectives in front of any noun, you’re likely to be accused of Purple Prose, so don’t do it. Just remember that when you have two or three adjectives, they need to be in the right order…UNLESS you intend to put them out of order.

Fronting adjectives

One of the nice things about knowing the rules is that when you break them, you do so with purpose. It won’t be an accidental mistake, rather an intentional contravention. For example, if you need to add emphasis, you could use a different order. Let’s say that there are several dogs running around the yard, some large and some small, and you wanted to point out a specific one, so instead of saying, “the large, brown dog”, you could say, “the brown, large dog”, as opposed to the black one or the white one.

You may also have a situation where your character isn’t a native English speaker, so he might not have noticed the subtleties of English adjective order—when he uses a slightly different order, what he says might sound awkward, but it will just serve to reinforce his individuality.