Wednesday, 14 December 2016

Adjectival Order in English

It seems that though we never formally learn it, we always use the same order of adjectives in a sentence. I came across an article on this on the web and didn't bookmark it, so this list combines the information on three websites. The first eight are listed on the British Council website, while two more are on the Cambridge Dictionary website.
  1. General opinion (nice)
  2. Specific opinion (tasty)
  3. Size (big, tiny)
  4. Shape (round, square)
  5. Age (young, 8-week-old)
  6. Colour (red)
  7. Nationality/origin (American)
  8. Material (leather, silver) 
  9. Type (U-shaped, 4-sided)
  10. Purpose (cleaning, cooking, general-purpose)

E.g. I had a nice, shiny, big, round, multi-coloured, balloon for my birthday.
 
But also note that the order can change the meaning: "Scottish smoked salmon" is not the same as "Smoked Scottish salmon"

END