Ordering multiple adjectives

Wednesday, September 7th, 2016

I don’t know anyone who explicitly knows the rules for ordering multiple adjectives in English, but we can all immediately hear when they’re aren’t followed:

When a number of adjectives are used together, the order depends on the function of the adjective. The usual order is:

  • Quantity — four, ten, a few, several
  • Value/Opinion — delicious, charming, beautiful
  • Size — tall, tiny, huge
  • Temperature — hot, cold
  • Age — old, young, new, 14-year-old
  • Shape — square, round
  • Colour — red, purple, green
  • Origin — Swedish, Victorian, Chinese
  • Material — glass, silver, wooden

Comments

  1. Mike in Boston says:

    French teachers of English as a second language know the order, and drill their students on it: Quantité, Valeur / opinion, Taille, Température, Âge, Forme, Couleur, Origine, Matière.

  2. Mike in Boston says:

    …oops, I didn’t click the link in the original article and just linked to the French version, which I had pulled up independently after seeing this on the LanguageLog. D’oh!

  3. Felix says:

    Or:

    Quantity
    General value/opinion
    Specific value/opinion
    Size
    Attractiveness/Sexiness (but, then, does temperature count for this? No, because, “foxy”!)
    Temperature
    Age
    Shape (Age and Shape seem to be in order contention)
    Color (USA! USA! USA!)
    Pattern
    Origin/Nationality
    Material
    Purpose

    Slate had a pretty good article on this subject.

    http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/the_good_word/2014/08/the_study_of_adjective_order_and_gsssacpm.html

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