Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Notes on Adjective Order


What is the correct order of adjectives before a noun? 

Michael Swan (Practical English Usage, Oxford University Press, 1997) writes:

"Unfortunately, the rules for adjective order are very complicated, and different grammars disagree about the details"

He does, however, go on to list some of the most important rules:
Adjectives of color, origin, material and purpose usually go in order.
Article
Colour
Origin
Material
Purpose
Noun

red
Spanish
leather
riding
boots
a

Venetian
glass
flower
vase 

Other adjectives usually go before words of color, origin, material and purpose. It is impossible to give exact rules, but adjectives of size, length and height often come first.
  • The round glass table (NOT the glass round table)
  • A big, modern brick house (NOT a modern, big brick house)
  • Long, flexible steel poles
  • A tall, ancient oak-tree
Adjectives which express judgements or attitudes usually come before all others. Examples are lovely, definite, pure, absolute, extreme, perfect, wonderful, silly.
  • A lovely, long, cool drink
  • Who's that silly fat man over there?
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
  • My last two jobs
He does not mention age, which would normally go after adjectives of size, length and height, but before color, origin, material and purpose. 
  • A big old straw hat
  • A charming young university student
Thus, a complete list could be:

(article) + number + judgement/attitude + size/length/height + age + color + origin + material + purpose + noun 

*Participle comes after color. “The green hand-blown French bottle...” “The first blue-eyed American girl...”

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