Adjective Order in English English Grammar Lesson
Oh, hello.
I’m Oli.
Welcome to Oxford Online English.
Sorry, I’m just standing here.
I’m drinking a cup of a strong Italian black
coffee.
Wait, is it black Italian strong coffee?
That doesn’t sound right.
Italian black strong coffee?
Anyway, in this lesson you can learn how to
put adjectives in the right order.
Let’s go back to the example I was having
so many problems with.
You want to use the words “coffee,” “black,”
“Italian,” and “strong” all together.
They can go in many different orders.
Which is correct?
“Strong black Italian coffee,” “Strong Italian
black coffee,” “Black strong Italian coffee,”
“Black Italian strong coffee,” “Italian black
strong coffee,” or “Italian strong black coffee?”
What do you think?
Is there only one possibility, or is there
more than one right answer?
Think about it.
There is only one possibility, “strong black
Italian coffee.”
Do you know why this is the right answer?
In English when we use several adjectives
before a noun, the adjectives have to go in
a particular order.
Of course your meaning will still be clear
if you make a mistake with adjective order.
It’s not a big problem.
However, it is very noticeable especially
to native speakers if someone makes a mistake
with adjective order.
So if you want your English to sound correct
and natural, you need to learn how to use
adjectives in the correct order.
Let’s start with a simple rule that you can
use.
Rule number one: opinions go first, facts
go second.
The full rules for adjective order, which
you’ll see in a minute, are complicated and
not very practical.
However, there is a simple rule which you
can use.
Adjectives which describe an opinion go before
adjectives which describe a fact.
For example, adjectives like ‘nice’, ‘beautiful’,
‘useful’, or ‘delicious’ all describe opinions.
Just because you describe something as delicious,
it doesn’t mean that everybody will agree
with you.
Adjectives like ‘big’, ‘new’, ‘green’, or
‘silk’ describe facts.
Take a second, try to think of some more adjectives
which describe opinions or facts.
Think about it.
Now let’s see our rule in action with some
examples.
“They live in a beautiful old house on the
edge of the city.”
“We had some delicious Korean food with some
friends.”
“Why are you wearing those ugly purple trousers?”
“She has an interesting new perspective on
the economic situation.”
In all of these sentences, we used two adjectives
before a noun, and you can see that the adjective
of opinion goes first and the adjective of
fact goes second.
Rule two: general ideas go before specific
ideas.
There’s another general rule which works well
if you don’t know the correct word order.
Adjectives which describe a general idea go
before adjectives which describe a specific
idea.
For example, if you say, “A long wooden table.”
The word ‘long’ is more general.
Many things can be long in many different
ways.
A street can be long, a story, or a speech
can be long.
You can have a long day and so on.
‘Wooden’ is more specific.
Generally speaking, something can only be
wooden if it’s actually made of wood.
So we put ‘long’ first and we say, “A long
wooden table.”
Can you think of any other adjectives which
have a general meaning?
Adjectives like ‘old’, ‘hot’, or ‘small’ all
have a general meaning because they can be
used with many different meanings to describe
many different things.
On the other hand, adjectives like ‘green’,
‘French’ or ‘straight’ are more specific.
If something is green, that’s quite a specific
idea.
Okay, let’s see this rule in action with some
examples.
“He works for a small Canadian company.”
“I love these old black-and-white films.”
“We bought a new leather sofa for the living
room.”
“I need to buy a really warm woolly hat.”
Again, we used two adjectives with each noun.
In each case, the adjective with a more general
meaning goes first, and the adjective with
a more specific meaning goes second.
Okay, point three, let’s look at the full
rule.
We said before that the full rule for adjective
order is quite complicated.
I’m showing you just for your interest.
Are you ready?
The full rule is: opinion, size, other qualities,
age, color or pattern, nationality and then
material.
Okay?
So we could say for example, “She bought a
beautiful long warm new black-and-white striped
Italian silk scarf.”
We have opinion, ‘beautiful’; the size, ‘long’;
another quality, ‘warm’; an age, ‘new’; a
color, ‘black-and-white’; a pattern, ‘striped’;
nationality, ‘Italian’; and the material,
‘silk’.
So, do you need to know this rule?
No, not really.
First of all, it’s too complicated.
You can’t carry this around in your head and
use it when you speak.
Secondly, it’s very rare that we use more
than two or three adjectives with a noun;
it almost never happens.
And three, native speakers don’t always follow
these rules, especially when there are more
than two or three adjectives.
So it doesn’t matter so much what you do in
those cases.
However, this doesn’t mean that adjective
order doesn’t matter, it does.
If you make a mistake like, “She has black
straight short hair,” this sounds a bit strange,
a bit wrong, and native speakers will hear
and notice mistakes like these.
Okay, part four, let’s look at some advice
you can use, and let’s review what we’ve talked
about.
Point one: trust your instinct.
If it sounds right, it probably is.
If it sounds wrong, it probably is.
Point two: remember the basic rules: general
before specific, opinion before fact.
These rules can help you in most of the situations
you will meet in everyday speaking.
That’s the end of the lesson.
Thanks very much for watching.
I hope you found it useful.
Do you want some more practice with this?
Well, check out the full version of the lesson
on our website, oxfordonlineenglish.com.
You can also see many other free English lessons.
That’s all for today.
Thanks again!
I’ll see you next time.
Bye-bye!