You can describe a bag as heavy or carry a heavy bag. When you put more than one adjective before a noun, their order helps the description sound natural. Position can also change which meaning an adjective has.
An adjective describes a noun or pronoun. You can put it before the noun or after a linking verb. A linking verb connects someone or something to a description: be, seem, look, feel, smell and taste can do this.
A determiner is a word such as a, the or my. If you need one, it normally comes before the adjective. Numbers also come before the description: my three heavy bags.
The adjective has the same form with a singular or plural noun. Add a plural ending to the noun where needed, not to the adjective.
An opinion tells you what someone thinks of a person or thing. A descriptive adjective gives information such as size, colour or material. In a neutral description, put the opinion first.
A general opinion, such as nice or wonderful, can describe a wide range of things. A more specific opinion fits a narrower group: tasty for food, for example. British Council gives general opinion before specific opinion as the usual order.
These are usual patterns, not a demand to add opinions to every description. One clear adjective may say all you need.
When you are not giving one word special emphasis, Cambridge gives the order below. You do not need a word in every row. Read down the table and use only the parts your description needs.
| Type | What it describes | Words |
|---|---|---|
| Opinion | What you think | lovely, dreadful |
| Size | How big or small | large, tiny |
| Physical quality | A quality you can observe | rough, thin |
| Shape | Its shape | oval, square |
| Age | How old or new | old, new |
| Colour | Its colour | purple, white |
| Origin | Where it comes from | Spanish, Brazilian |
| Material | What it is made of | wooden, woollen |
| Type | What kind | four-sided, general-purpose |
| Purpose | What it is for | cooking, cleaning |
British Council separates general and specific opinion; Cambridge also lists physical quality, type and purpose. These are teaching guides to the same broad pattern, not identical lists. The table above follows Cambridge's sequence, including shape before age.
Cambridge and British Council both say very long strings are unusual. You do not need to build a ten-adjective sentence to show that you know the order. Put some information in another sentence instead.
A different order can give a word special emphasis. Learn the neutral order first; do not treat every reversal as impossible English in every context.
After a linking verb, use and to add a second description. With a longer list, use commas between earlier items and and before the last. A comma before the final and is also possible.
Use but when you want to show a contrast, not simply add another quality. Both and and but can be grammatical; they show different connections.
Before a noun, adjectives of different types usually build one description without and: a large green bowl. Do not add a comma just because there are two adjectives.
Sometimes two adjectives describe the noun separately, with equal weight. These are called coordinate adjectives. Try putting and between them and reversing their order. If both versions keep the intended sense naturally, a comma can separate them. Purdue and MLA use this test.
Do not put a comma between the last adjective and its noun: a cold, miserable evening, not a cold, miserable, evening.
You can also use and between adjectives of the same type, or to describe different colours in one object.
Meaning and grouping matter. The order table is not a rule that every pair needs a comma, or that every pair must have none.
Check the word as well as the general pattern. With asleep, awake, alive and alone, learn the ordinary pattern after a linking verb.
Before a noun, use a suitable alternative such as sleeping or lone, or use a longer description after the noun: a puppy that is asleep. Do not turn this into a rule for every adjective whose spelling begins with a.
Main and only come before the noun in their limiting uses. They identify which reason, person or thing you mean.
British Council also lists before-noun patterns with direction words and with countless, occasional, lone, mere, indoor and outdoor. Learn the word in its intended use, rather than treating the list as a ban on every other construction.
In countless tiny stars, countless means too many to count. In an outdoor concert, outdoor describes an event in the open air.
Former, present and future also have before-noun uses. Former means previous, not current.
Treat position limits as word-and-meaning patterns, not a ban on every other sense. Cambridge Dictionary marks ill meaning unwell as not usually before a noun; ill meaning bad has before-noun uses such as ill effects. Do not label all before-noun uses of ill wrong.
Likewise, do not ban all -ed feeling adjectives before nouns. You can describe an interested visitor or frightened animal. See -ed and -ing adjectives: feeling and effect for that contrast.
Put the adjective after pronouns such as something, anything, nothing and someone.
This does not reverse ordinary adjective order before a noun. Compare a waterproof jacket with something waterproof.
Moving an adjective may change what it means, rather than simply make the sentence wrong. Cambridge gives these distinctions.
| Before a noun | After a linking verb |
|---|---|
| An old friend: someone you have known for a long time. | My friend is old: the person's age. |
| This particular drawer: this specific drawer. | She is particular about details: not easily satisfied. |
| Their late uncle: their uncle who has died. | Their uncle was late: he did not arrive on time. |
Keep the intended meaning when you rewrite. My friend is old is not a safe replacement for an old friend if you mean the length of the friendship.
A longer adjective phrase or a participle description may follow the noun. Do not try to fit every following word between an adjective and its noun.
These longer patterns have their own references. See Past and perfect participle clauses: invited, having checked and Reduced relative clauses: people waiting, a letter sent yesterday.
A noun can also describe another noun. It is not automatically an adjective. Put an adjective before that noun group: an expensive coffee machine. See Noun + noun: a bus driver, a car door, a shopping list for noun modifiers and Compound adjectives for compound adjectives.
✗We bought two blues folders.
✓We bought two blue folders.
The adjective blue does not take plural -s.
✗She carried a very bag heavy.
✓She carried a very heavy bag.
In this noun phrase, very heavy stays together before bag.
✗It was a cold, miserable, evening.
✓It was a cold, miserable evening.
Do not put a comma between the final adjective and its noun.
-ed and -ing adjectives: feeling and effect explains feeling and effect pairs. Linking verbs: be, seem, appear, become, get covers verbs that connect a subject to a description. For words following adjectives, use Adjective + preposition; for stronger or weaker descriptions, use Gradable and non-gradable adjectives: choosing degree words. Noun + noun: a bus driver, a car door, a shopping list, Compound adjectives and Past and perfect participle clauses: invited, having checked explain the longer noun descriptions linked above.
Eight questions. Choose one answer for each.