Taken from http://photoeverywhere.co.uk/

By Olga Koliichuk

 

In English word order is very important. When we describe something we use adjectives. We can describe color, size or any other properties of a noun.

A noun is a part of speech which denotes an object (a person, an animal, etc).

There are some rules that indicate which place each descriptive adjective should have.

First you should put a determiner before your chain of adjectives. Determiners can be a definite/indefinite article (a, the), possessive pronouns (his, my, their) or adverbs (a couple of, several).

For example: a necklace.

Next comes the adjective describing the speaker’s observations: boring, nice, lovely, weird, terrible.

E.g. a lovely necklace.

After that you add its size: tiny, small, little, medium, big, huge, enormous, vast, etc.

E.g. a lovely tiny necklace.

Then you put the shape of the object: round, rectangular, square, shapeless.

E.g. a lovely tiny round necklace.

Now you can add the age if needed: old, new, ancient, contemporary, modern, etc.

E. g.  a lovely tiny round new necklace.

Now you can add its color: red, blue, yellow, orange, etc.

E. g. a lovely tiny round new red necklace.

Then you add the origin of the object: Pakistani, British, Ethiopian, Argentinian, Czech, etc.

E.g. a lovely tiny round new red Argentinian necklace.

And finally you put the material of what the object is made of: gold, wood, silver, plastic, silk, copper, etc.

E.g. a lovely tiny round new red Argentinian gold necklace.

Here are some more examples:

My nice small square old blue Mexican wooden souvenir.

They wanted to try a huge blue and green Italian ice-cream.

She was crazy about that smart medium-sized new white and black American silk costume.

 

Let’s sum up in a table:

1	Determiner- a, the, his, several, etc	Their curtains
2	Observations – lovely, horrible, hilarious.	Their  nice curtains
3	Size – big, small, huge, etc.	Their nice small curtains
4	Shape – square, rectangular, round, etc.	Their nice small round curtains
5	Age – new, old, modern, ancient, etc.	Their nice small round old curtains
6	Color – red, purple, green, brown, etc.	Their nice small round old brown curtains
7	Origin – Japanese, Estonian, Russian, Norwegian, etc.	Their nice small round old brown Norwegian curtains
8	Material – gold, silver, silk, etc.	Their nice small round old brown Norwegian silk curtains

 

NOTE: In case you want to be a writer: heaping adjectives is usually considered bad style. Don’t use more than two adjectives for the same noun.

 

Exercise. Put the adjectives into the right order.

1. This, French, old, boring, film.
2. The, Canadian, yellow, long, scarf.
3. An, huge, interesting, English, old, text.
4. Peruvian, captivating, a, modern, dance.
5. Weird, enormous, a, green, Russian, tree.
6. Our, gold, antique, beautiful, ring.
7. Medium-sized, orange, his, good-looking, shirt.
8. Stylish, black, expensive, computer, your.
9. Round, and, square, silver, some, Persian, coins.
10.  Amazing, white, an, brown, and, Arabian, horse.

Answers: scroll down.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. This boring old French film.
2. The long yellow Canadian scarf.
3. An interesting huge old English text.
4. A captivating modern Peruvian dance.
5. A weird enormous green Russian tree.
6. Our beautiful antique gold ring.
7. His good-looking medium-sized orange shirt.
8. Your expensive stylish black computer.
9. Some round and square Persian silver coins.
10.  An amazing white and brown Arabian horse.