Order of Adjectives
Many a times we use more than one
adjective with a noun. In such situation, it is important to arrange the
adjectives in the correct order according to their types. This systematic
arrangement of adjectives and the rationale behind it is called the ‘order of
adjectives’.
Some of the rules that need to be
kept in mind while ordering the adjectives are:
- Determiners like articles (a, an,
the), possessives (my, your, etc.), demonstratives (this, that, etc.),
quantifiers (some, any, few, many, etc.) and numbers (one, two, three, etc.)
always appear before anything else.
- The general order is OPINION
before FACTS. This means that opinions should always come before facts while
arranging the adjectives before noun. For example: in the clause ‘a beautiful
ancient house’, ‘a’ being a determiner should come first, ‘beautiful’, i.e.,
the opinion should come next before the fact, i.e., ‘ancient’. Finally, ‘house’
should come which is the main noun.
- Therefore, the normal order that
is followed is: Determiner/Opinion Adjectives/Fact Adjectives/Nouns.
- Fact adjectives can be further
broken down and arranged into: other / size, shape, age, colour / origin /
material / purpose.
For example:
Adjectives
|
Main
Noun
|
||||||
Determiner
|
Opinion Adjective
|
Fact Adjectives
|
|||||
other
|
size, shape, age, colour
|
origin
|
material
|
Purpose (often a noun used as an
adjective)
|
|||
Two
|
tall
|
white
|
American
|
men
|
|||
A
|
beautiful
|
well-known
|
15th century
|
Italian
|
coffee
|
table
|
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