ORDER OF ADJECTIVES

Definition

Adjectives are words that describe or modify another person or

thing in the sentence. They are followed by a noun. The articles
a, an, and the — are adjectives.
the tall professor, a month's pay, a six-year-old child

THE ORDER OF ADJECTIVES

OSASCOM
Opinio Size Age Shap Colo Origi Mater
n e ur n ial
a beautif small old round brown Frenc woode table
ul h n
an expens New red Italian car
ive

Position of Adjectives

Adjectives nearly always appear immediately before the noun

or noun phrase that they modify. Sometimes they appear in a
string of adjectives, and when they do, they appear in a set
order according to category. When indefinite pronouns — such
as something, someone, anybody — are modified by an
adjective, the adjective comes after the pronoun:
Anyone capable of doing something horrible to someone nice
should be punished.
Something wicked comes this way.

We usually don’t use more than two or three (at the most)
adjectives together.
When adjectives belong to the same class, they become what
we call coordinated adjectives, and you will want to put a
comma between them: the inexpensive, comfortable shoes.
The rule for inserting the comma works this way: if you could
have inserted a conjunction — and or but — between the two
adjectives, use a comma. We could say these are "inexpensive
but comfortable shoes", so we would use a comma between
them (when the "but" isn't there). When you have three
coordinated adjectives, separate them all with commas, but
don't insert a comma between the last adjective and the noun.

1
 Circle the correct answer.

1. I bought a pair of _____ shoes.

black leather  leather black

2. It was a ____ car. 

red fast fast red

3. It's a ____ building. 

big round round big

4. I bought ____ knife. 

a Swiss army an army Swiss

5. It's ____ film. 

a beautiful old an old beautiful

6. He's ____ man. 

an unfriendly rich a rich unfriendly

7. It's ____ phone. 

a mobile expensive an expensive mobile

8. It's ____ village. 

an old lovely a lovely old

9. The ____ visitors were Japanese. 
two last last two

10. He's got ____ eyes. 

blue big big blue

1
Order of Adjectives – key

1.black leather  
2.fast red 
3.big round 
4.a Swiss army
5.a beautiful old  
6.an unfriendly rich 
7.an expensive mobile
8.a lovely old 
9.last two 
10.big blue