Level: intermediate
Two adjectives
We often have two adjectives in front of a noun:
a handsome young man
a big black car
that horrible big dog
Some adjectives give a general opinion. We can use these adjectives to describe almost any noun:
| good bad lovely strange |
nice beautiful brilliant excellent |
awful important wonderful nasty |
He's a good/wonderful/brilliant/bad/dreadful teacher.
That's a good/wonderful/brilliant/bad/dreadful book.
Some adjectives give a specific opinion. We only use these adjectives to describe particular kinds of noun, for example:
| Food | Furniture, buildings | People, animals |
|---|---|---|
| delicious tasty |
comfortable uncomfortable |
clever intelligent friendly |
We usually put a general opinion in front of a specific opinion:
nice tasty soup
a nasty uncomfortable armchair
a lovely intelligent animal
We usually put an opinion adjective in front of a descriptive adjective:
a nice red dress
a silly old man
those horrible yellow curtains
- Order of adjectives 1
- Order of adjectives 2
Adjectives after link verbs
We use some adjectives only after a link verb:
| afraid alive alone asleep content glad |
ill ready sorry sure unable well |
Some of the commonest -ed adjectives are normally used only after a link verb:
| annoyed bored finished pleased thrilled |
We say:
Our teacher was ill.
My uncle was very glad when he heard the news.
The policeman seemed to be very annoyed.
but we do not say:
We had
an ill teacher.
When he heard the news he wasa very glad uncle.
He seemed to bea very annoyed policeman.
- Order of adjectives 3
Level: advanced
Three or more adjectives
Sometimes we have three adjectives in front of a noun, but this is unusual:
a nice handsome young man
a big black American car
that horrible big fierce dog
It is very unusual to have more than three adjectives.
Adjectives usually come in this order:
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| General opinion | Specific opinion | Size | Shape | Age | Colour | Nationality | Material |
- Order of adjectives 4
Adjectives in front of nouns
A few adjectives are used only in front of a noun:
|
north |
northern southern eastern western |
countless occasional lone mere |
indoor outdoor |
We say:
He lives in the eastern district.
There were countless problems with the new machinery.
but we do not say:
The district he lives in is eastern.
The problems with the new machinery were countless.
I don't think there is a specific rule for position (horizontal). An "iron horizontal bar" or a "horizontal iron bar" both sound fine to me as a native English speaker.
Hello Mr Ahmed Adel,
Yes, that is a grammatically correct sentence. 'newly' is an adverb and 'graduated' is an adjective. Many adjectives are essentially past (or present) participles that get used as adjectives, but not all past participles can be used as adjectives.
Your argument about using the transitive verb 'graduate' in the passive voice is sound, but I don't think you'd ever see that in writing or hear it in speaking.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Purple_Pixie,
I think it is someting of a sliding scale from odd-sounding to highly unnatural, so I take your point. However, I think it's useful to clarify for learners which forms sound natural and which do not.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Renita,
The first version (...terrifying big...) is correct. We put opinion before size.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
A terrifying big black dog is correct because terrifying is an opinion.
Hello Jack,
To be honest, the order of adjectives is only partially fixed. Opinion is always first and origin and material come last. Between those, there is some flexibility. It's often a question of convention and how something sounds rather than fixed rules.
For example, I think both of these sentences sound fine:
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Jack,
Yes, that's right! Cotton, leather and many other materials are nouns. But they function like adjectives in phrases like a leather jacket or a cotton shirt.
Does that make sense?
Jonathan
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello xeesid,
I think there are problems with both sentences. The first sentence suggests that you saw the angel because you were awake, and I don't think you aim to show this kind of causal connection. The second sentence does not sound natural to me.
I think the best option would be a simpler construction, but I have to emphasise that we are dealing with issues of style here and so it is a subjective choice, dependent on how the author wishes to sound and what the conventions of the genre (a novel, a speech, a poem, a song etc) are. However, I would suggest something like this:
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Joz Frank,
Yes, your example is correct! But I think red wine is a bit different because 'red' is part of the noun. For example, the Cambridge Dictionary lists 'red wine' as a noun. So, the two words wouldn't be separated by other adjectives. A similar example is 'the White House' - if there was another White House in (for example) Canada, it would be the Canadian White House (not the White Canadian House), because 'white' is part of the noun.
But when the adjective is not part of the noun, colour does come before origin (see also the Cambridge Dictionary's explanation). For example, a Ferrari is a red Italian sports car.
Does that make sense?
Jonathan
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Elen Nikol,
Besides indicating possession, an 's can be a contracted form of 'is' and 'has'.
In this case, 'my sister's got' is a contracted form of 'my sister has got'. The verb 'has got' indicates possession, but there is no possessive apostrophe in this case.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Sourav Bhatia,
'be expected' is a passive form here. If you simply changed 'expected' to 'expect', the sentence would not be correct, but if you said 'what we can expect', that would correct.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Najmiii3579,
Confused is used in your example because it describes the characteristic of the response, not how it makes other people feel. When we say something such as a response, an answer or an explanation is confused, we mean that it is incoherent, not well constructed or illogical. It may also be confusing - hard for others to understand.
In your second example, there is some ambiguity, but the normal understanding of this kind of sentence unless there is some reason to think otherwise is that the adjective describes the whole list and not only the final element. If the speaker wanted the adjective to refer only to 'capital' then they could break the sentence up to make that clear:
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello again Najmiii3579,
Yes, that correct.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello PabloTT,
The second sentence is fine and you could use either form without any change in meaning.
With the first sentence, your suggestion is also fine, but the sentence itself does not seem very natural to me. I would use build rather than build out; build out does not seem a correct form to me.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Tim,
It's really ambiguous whether the adjective tasty describes only the first noun or all nouns in the list. The listener would need to judge based on contextual clues.
As far as the conjunctions go, or implies a choice of some kind: you can have or take one of the items but not all, for example. Using and does not imply this.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Megi Murrizi
I'm going to assume you're talking about a writer who had published some books. If you say 'his first beautiful book', it means he's published books but that the one you are talking about is the first one that is beautiful. If you say 'his beautiful first book', you are talking about his first book and are saying that it's beautiful.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Tim,
I don't think there is any difference. There may be with certain adjectives in certain contexts, though none come to mind, but I think it's more a question of style.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello lizaantonova
Yes, I'd say that 'shiny' is best seen as an opinion, though I can understand how that might seem odd. 'silver' could be a colour or a material, depending on what the wings are made of.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Ahmed Imam
The first one is correct.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Ardalan,
Adjective order is somewhat flexible in English and there may be some variation – this is why we say adjectives usually come in the order given, not always.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Deviljin,
The correct verb for this action is fatten. I think the best option is a present perfect passive form:
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello agie
I'd just say 'my house is quite spacious' (without 'inside').
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team