Adjective Order

Putting modifiers in a natural sounding word order

A pretty, little, purple-and-pink

paisley pussycat

Adjectives are often placed before a noun in the following order:

EVALUAT
ION/OPIN APPEARANCE AGE COLOR ORIGIN FUNCTION
ION
EVALUAT APPEARANCE/ AGE / COLOR/ ORIGIN / TYPE /
ION/ QUALITY PERIOD PATTERN MATERIAL FUNCTION
OPINION

beautiful SIZE / MEASURE new-born red GEOGRAPHICAL TYPE

 good big / large old green French 1st class
bad small / little young blue Mexican multi-purpose
ugly low new light-yellow beach wireless
interesting high antique striped mountain HD / 3-D
fascinating heavy ancient dark blue oceanic men's
intelligent SHAPE five-year-old deep purple MATERIAL FUNCTION

pretty triangular brand-new pink ceramic hunting

unsightly square five-day-old brown cotton cooking
foul CONDITION century-old rose wooden walking

stupid chipped mature olive titanium running

silly broken middle-age aqua dancing
ridiculous rotten teenage lime front-loading
easy shiny prehistoric polka-dot off-road

Also called pre-nominal modifiers; and pre-head modifiers the linguistic term for modifiers placed before the head noun in a clause

The adjective word order shown above occurs with a small amount of variation. Preference for particular word order is influenced by friends,
community, and the media (news, commercials, songs, and so on). In addition, word order is influenced by the ability to recall and retrieve
words when describing a stored visual image.

More word-order variation tends to occur with the first three categories (Opinion, Appearance, Age) than the last three (Color, Origin, Type).
When in doubt, ask a native speaker, who will most likely have a strong opinion about what order sounds natural. This chart is offered to you as
a guide. The categories are not "written in stone".

Related page: Using hyphens with modifiers

Adjective Order
Sentence Examples
Sentence Examples (Word order may vary!)
 SENT / QUES EVAL / OPIN APPEAR / QUAL AGE / PER COLOR ORIGIN TYPE NOUN
SENTENCE/ EVALUATION/ APPEARANCE/ AGE / COLOR/ ORIGIN / TYPE / NOUN /
QUESTION OPINION QUALITY PERIOD PATTERN MATERIAL FUNCTION PRONOUN

Who left this foul, rotten, two-week-old banana?

The artist created a fantastic, huge, mobius- shiny, stainless-steel sculpture.
shaped,
They wore a beautiful, life-size, red-and-yellow feathered, costume.
Chinese-dragon
Olodum is a powerful, hypnotic, Brazilian Samba-reggae ensemble.
energetic,
He wore some mod / fab 1960's red-flowered/ cotton bell-bottom/ pants.
patterned discotheque
He was an intelligent, young, black, Portuguese water / hunting dog.
This is my sleek, new, black, HD (high iPad.
definition)
She chose a cute, pink, girls', Hello Kitty, ball.
bowling

Speakers rarely use more than three or four adjectives before a noun unless they are trying to be very descriptive.
*Nominal modifiers (Noun Modifiers or -ing modifiers) may usually be restated as a prepositional phrase: for hunting, for girls, by Sanrio , by
Swiss Army (a post-nominal prep. phrase).
Variations
Appearance

Appearance: size, shape, and condition

SENTENCE (SIZE) (SHAPE) (CONDITION) NOUN PHRASE
SENTENCE (SIZE SHAPE CONDITION NOUN

We picked a gigantic round ripe tomato.

ripe (condition) large (size) heart-shaped (shape)
round (shape) ripe (condition) jumbo (size)

ripe (adj.) ready to pick and to eat

A person's preference for word order may vary with the use of a synonym (large, big, jumbo, gigantic), or with word length (hyphenated words
last).
Post-Nominal Modifiers
Modifiers placed after the noun

These are summaries from other pages in this website.

Function and Type Modifiers

BEFORE AFTER

Moidifiers for function or type may be placed before the noun. Function Function and type may also be expressed with a prepositional phrase: functio
modifiers, mostly occur as -ing verb forms. Type modifiers often occur as by; type with + noun. See For + Gerund and By / With
past participle modifiers.

FUNCTION NOUN FOR VERB-ING

Driving classes begin next week. Classes for driving begin next week.
We'll be driving an off-road vehicle. vehicle (n.) auto, car We'll be driving a vehicle for off-road driving. (SUV)

TYPE NOUN WITH + NOUN

Sugar cookies are my favorite. Cookies with sugar are my favorite. (made with)
Whitney bought some laced shoes. (shoes with ties)
Whitney bought some high-heeled shoes.
Whitney bought some shoes with laces.
Whitney bought some shoes with high-heels.
Type Maker or Brand Modifiers

BEFORE AFTER

Designer, artiist, maker, seller, or brand-name modifiers are usually placed The same may also be expressed with a prepositional phrase placed after the
before the noun. noun. Use by when the source is a maker and from when the source is a store
See By Phrases (passive voice).

MAKER NOUN BY / FROM VERB-ING

Nike shoes are very durable. (brand name) Shoes by Nike are very durable. (made by Nike)
She prefers to buy Macy's shoes. (department store) She prefers to buy shoes from Macy's. (sold in Macy's)
We bought a Picasso painting. (artist's work of art) We bought a painting by Picasso. (painted by Picasso)
Mother's pies are delicious. Pies by mother are delicious. (ocommercial names only)

"Unbreakable words" something

BEFORE AFTER
 When some is used as a quantifier before a noun, the modifier is placed When some is part of a compound word (someone, something, somewhere)
directly before the noun. the modifier is placed after the word. Note that some means an unknown on
thing, or place. See Some A Vague One.

SOME QUANTIFIER SOME UNKNOWN, UNIDENTIFIED

Some funny shows are on television tonight Something funny will be on television tonight. (I can't think of the name.)
We'd prefer some quiet places to work. Let's go somewhere quiet. (Any place, yet unidentified)
We hired some new employees. Someone new will be working here. (Unknown, yet unidentified)

Adjective Complements (resulting state modifiers)

BEFORE AFTER

A modifier may be used after a BE verb (as a predicate complement) With some verbs, an action and its resulting state can be combined into one
or before a noun to describe the noun's condition at that time. sentence. In these examples, the adjective indicating the resulting state is
placed after the direct object. The adjective modifies the object. SeeAdjective
Complements to Verbs.

PRE-NOUN EXISTING POST-NOUN RESULTNG STATE

The table is clean. It's a clean table. He wiped the table. As a result, it is clean now. He wiped the table clean.
His house is blue. It's a blue house. He painted his house. As a result, it is blue now. He painted his house blue.
The egg is cracked. It's a cracked egg. (damaged) He cracked the egg. As a result, it is open now. He cracked
the egg open. (ready)