WHICH ADJECTIVE COMES FIRST?

Order of Adjectives

When we use more than one adjective before a noun, we must put them in a specific order. For example, we say “the big red balloon.” We do not say “the red big balloon” because size always comes before color.

Here is the natural order we use:

1. Determiner: (a, an, the, this, that, his, her, some)
2. Opinion: (beautiful, expensive, delicious, nice)
3. Size: (big, small, huge, tiny)
4. Age: (old, young, new, ancient)
5. Shape: (round, square, tall, flat)
6. Color: (brown, white, red, blue)
7. Origin: (American, Chinese, Japanese, Italian)
8. Material: (wooden, cotton, plastic, gold)
9. Purpose / Qualifier: (sleeping bag, rocking chair, wedding ring)

Grammar Tip: We usually do not put commas between adjectives when they belong to different categories.

Examples:

• We bought a beautiful round wooden table. (beautiful = opinion, round = shape, wooden = material)
• She has a cute small old black cat. (cute = opinion, small = size, old = age, black = color)

Although this is the rule we usually follow, there are occasional exceptions, and some adjectives can belong to more than one category depending on the context.