Order Of Adjectives Before Nouns
When several adjectives come before a noun, they usually have to be put in a particular order. The rules for adjective order are very complicated, and different grammars disagree about the details. Here are some of the most important rules:
Colour, origin, material and purpose
Adjectives (or modifying nouns) of colour, origin, material and purpose usually go in that order.
Red Italian leather riding boots
A Venetian glass flower vase
Other adjectives
Other adjectives usually go before words of colour, origin, material and purpose. It is impossible to give exact rules, but adjectives of size, length and height often come first.
A tall, ancient oak-tree (NOT An ancient, tall oak-tree)
A fat old lady
A small black leather bag
A round glass table
Judgments and attitudes
Adjectives which express judgments or attitudes usually come before all others. Examples are lovely, definite, pure, absolute, extreme, perfect, wonderful, silly.
A lovely, long, cool drink
Numbers
Numbers usually go before adjectives.
Six large eggs
The second big shock
Commas
Before nouns, we generally use commas between adjectives. This is common in longer sequences.
An expensive, ill-planned, wasteful project
Commas can be dropped before short common adjectives.
Sections in this article
Adjectives
Adjectives placed before
nouns
Adjectives placed after
verbs
Adjectives without
Nouns
Adjectives: order before nouns
Kinds of Adjectives
Adjectives with and
Complements of adjectives
See also
Adjective clauses
Relative clauses
Relative pronouns
Identifying relative clauses
Omission of relative pronouns