Fecha

Usual Word Order of Adjectives


Usual Word Order of Adjectives

An Adjective is a word that describes a noun or a pronoun. Adjectives follow a particular order:

In (a), two adjectives (large and red) modify a noun (car). An adjective describing sized (large) comes before color (red):

(a) a large red car
(b) INCORRECT: a red large car
The adjective beautiful express an opinion. Opinions adjectives usually come before all other adjectives:

(c) a beautiful young woman
(d) a beautiful red car
(e) a beautiful Greek island
In (c), opinion precedes age.
In (d), opinion precedes color.
In (e), opinion precedes nationality.

There are many opinion adjectives. The words in (f) are examples of common opinion adjectives:

(f) OPINION ADJECTIVES

dangeraous favorite important
difficult good interesting
dirty happy strong
expensive honest wonderful

USUAL WORD ORDER OF ADJECTIVES

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)
OPINION SIZE AGE COLOR NATIONALITY MATERIAL
beautiful large young red Greek metal
delicious tall old blue Chinese glass
kind little middle-aged black Mexican plastic

A noun is usually modified by only one or two adjectives, although sometimes there are three:

(g) some delicious Mexican food
(h) a small glass vase
(i) a kind old Chinese man
It is very rare to find a long list of adjectives in front of a noun:

(j) RARE:

a beautiful small old brown Greek metal coin

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