English adjectives order
The table below shows different types of adjectives which are used in English as well as their definitions. Each type of English adjectives is illustrated with a few examples.
| Type | Definition | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Opinion/Quality | An opinion adjective explains what you think about something. | silly, beautiful, horrible, difficult |
| Size | A size adjective tells you how big or small something is. | large, tiny, enormous, little |
| Age | An age adjective tells you how young or old something or someone is. | ancient, new, young, old |
| Shape | A shape adjective describes the shape of something. | square, round, flat, rectangular |
| Colour | A colour adjective describes the colour of something. | blue, pink, reddish, grey |
| Origin | An origin adjective describes where something comes from. | Victorian, Chinese, French, American, eastern, Greek |
| Material | A material adjective describes what something is made from. | wooden, metal, cotton, paper |
| Purpose | A purpose adjective describes what something is used for. | sleeping (as in 'sleeping bag'), roasting (as in 'roasting tin') |
The table below shows some examples of the order in which adjectives should be used in English.
| Opinion | Size | Age | Shape | Colour | Origin | Material | Purpose | NOUN |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| beautiful | old | brown | French | handmade | cupboard | |||
| huge | round | metal | bowl | |||||
| lovely | big | new | yellow | Spanish | cloth | beach | bag | |
| attractive | mottled | blue | Spanish | ceramic | tiles |