Order of adjectives

When several adjectives come before a noun (or when nouns are used as modifiers before another noun), they are usually put in a more or less fixed order. However, this is a complicated grammatical area, and it is not possible to give simple reliable rules for adjective order. The following guidelines will help.

Description before classification: an old political idea

Words which describe come before words which classify (say what type of thing we are talking about).

	description	classification	noun
an	old	political	idea	(not a political old idea)
the	latest	educational	reform	(not the educational latest reform)
a	green	wine	bottle	(not a wine green bottle)
	leather	dancing	shoes	(not dancing leather shoes)

Opinion before description: a wonderful old house

Words which express opinions, attitudes and judgements usually come before words that simply describe. Examples are lovely, definite, pure, absolute, extreme, perfect, wonderful, silly.

	opinion	description	noun
a	lovely	cool	drink	(not a cool lovely drink)
a	wonderful	old	house	(not an old wonderful house)
	beautiful	green	mountains	(not green beautiful mountains)
that	silly	fat	cat	(not that fat silly cat)

Order of descriptive words

The order of descriptive words is not completely fixed. Words for origin and material usually come last. Words for size, age, shape and colour often come in that order.

	size	age	shape	colour	origin	material	noun
a	fat	old		white			horse
a	big			grey		woollen	sweater
		new			Italian		boots
a	small		round	black		leather	handbag
an	enormous			brown	German	glass	mug
a	little	modern	square			brick	house

Numbers

Numbers usually go before adjectives.

• six large eggs
• the second big shock

First, next and last most often go before one, two, three, etc.

• the first three days (More common than the three first days)
• my last two jobs

Noun modifiers after adjectives

Note that noun modifiers (which often classify, or refer to material) usually follow adjectives.

• a big new car factory
• enormous black iron gates

Commas

Before nouns, we generally use commas between adjectives (especially in longer sequences) which give similar kinds of information, as in physical descriptions.

• a steep, slippery, grassy slope
• an expensive, ill-planned, wasteful project

But commas can be dropped before short common adjectives.

• a tall(,) dark(,) handsome cowboy

We do not use commas between adjectives which give different kinds of information.

• an attractive traditional woollen dress

Commas are not used after numbers or other determiners.

• ten green bottles (not ten, green bottles)
• these new ideas (not these, new ideas)

note

For more details, (see here).

After a verb

The order of adjectives in predicative position (after be, seem and similar verbs, (see here) is similar to the order before nouns. Note that noun modifiers are not used in this position.

• a big, green wine bottle but not The bottle is big, green and wine.

note

For and with adjectives before nouns and after verbs, (see here).