Adjectives - Order of Adjectives

Adjectives - describe nouns and have the same form in the singular and plural. They go before nouns (a nice view) but after the verbs be, look, smell, sound, feel, taste, seem, appear, become.

• give us factual information about age, size, colour, origin, material. (big, short, old).

Fact adjectives

• show what a person thinks of somebody or something (ugly, amazing).

Opinion adjectives

Order of adjectives

Opinion Size Age Shape Colour Origin Material used for/about (Purpose) Noun

It is a lovely big new round white Italian glass dinner table.

• ordinal numbers (first, second) go before cardinal numbers (one, two).

• the adjectives afraid, alike, alive, alone, content, glad are never followed by a noun. (She lives alone.)

• the adjectives chief, elder, eldest, former, indoor, outdoor, outer, principal are always followed by nouns. (He is the former company president.)

  • certain adjectives are used with ”the” as nouns to refer to groups of people. These are: elderly, middle - aged, old, young, blind, dead, deaf, sick, living, hungry, poor, rich, strong, weak. (The young are used to new technologies. BUT: The young people in my area are asking for free public Wi-Fi.