Adjective Order

Form

When two or more adjectives sit in front of a noun, English usually puts them in this order: Opinion → Size → Age → Shape → Color → Origin → Material → Purpose, then the noun (Age covers periods too, like Victorian or ancient; Origin is where it comes from, like French or Italian; Purpose is what it is for, like riding or writing).

In practice you rarely stack more than three, so the useful habit is simply that your own judgment comes first and the material or purpose comes last, right next to the noun: “a beautiful long red silk scarf”. Changing the order does not change what the words mean, but it makes the phrase sound wrong to a native speaker, which is why the sequence is worth learning.

When to Use It

1. 1

   Usually put opinion before the factual adjectives

   a charming old French village — not an old charming French village, which sounds wrong.

2. 2

   Put size before age and color

   a big old brown suitcase.

3. 3

   Keep origin and material near the end, after the other adjectives

   a tiny Japanese ceramic bowl.

4. 4

   Put the purpose of the thing immediately before the noun, where it almost becomes part of its name

   an elegant Victorian wooden writing desk.

5. 5

   Use no commas between adjectives from different categories

   a small leather bag.

6. 6

   Use a comma when two adjectives are the same kind — if you can swap them or put “and” between them, they are coordinate —

   a strange, unsettling silence.

Common Mistakes

• Putting origin or material before opinion: write a gorgeous antique French clock, not a French gorgeous antique clock — your own opinion comes before facts like where it is from.
• Putting color before age: write an old black German sports car, not a black old German sports car — age comes first.
• Putting material before origin: write an ancient Egyptian gold mask, not an ancient gold Egyptian mask — origin comes before material.
• Adding a comma between adjectives from different categories: write a tiny red car, not a tiny, red car — only same-kind adjectives take a comma.
• Forgetting that “a” becomes “an” when the first adjective begins with a vowel sound: write an old blue coat, not a old blue coat.