Adjective Order

Putting modifiers in a natural sounding word order

A pretty, little, purple-and-pink

paisley pussycat

Adjectives are often placed before a noun in the following order:

EVALUAT
ION/OPI APPEARANCE
NION
EVALUATI APPEARANCE/
ON/
QUALITY
OPINION
beautiful SIZE / MEASURE

AGE

COLOR

ORIGIN

FUNCTION

AGE /
PERIOD

COLOR/
PATTERN

ORIGIN /
MATERIAL

TYPE /
FUNCTION

new-born

red

GEOGRAPHICAL TYPE

good
big / large
bad
small / little
ugly
low
interestin high
g
fascinati heavy
ng
intelligen SHAPE
t
pretty
triangular
unsightly square
foul
CONDITION

old
young
new
antique

green
blue
light-yellow
striped

French
Mexican
beach
mountain

1st class
multi-purpose
wireless
HD / 3-D

ancient

dark blue

oceanic

men's

five-year-old

deep purple

MATERIAL

FUNCTION

brand-new
five-day-old
century-old

pink
brown
rose

ceramic
cotton
wooden

hunting
cooking
walking

stupid
silly
ridiculou
s
easy

chipped
broken
rotten

mature
middle-age
teenage

olive
aqua
lime

titanium

running
dancing
front-loading

shiny

prehistoric

polka-dot

off-road

Also called pre-nominal modifiers; and pre-head modifiers the linguistic term for modifiers placed before the
head noun in a clause

The adjective word order shown above occurs with a small amount of variation. Preference for particular word order
is influenced by friends, community, and the media (news, commercials, songs, and so on). In addition, word order
is influenced by the ability to recall and retrieve words when describing a stored visual image.

More word-order variation tends to occur with the first three categories (Opinion, Appearance, Age) than the last
three (Color, Origin, Type). When in doubt, ask a native speaker, who will most likely have a strong opinion about
what order sounds natural. This chart is offered to you as a guide. The categories are not "written in stone".
Related page: Using hyphens with modifiers

Adjective Order
Sentence Examples

Sentence Examples

(Word order may vary!)

SENT / QUES

EVAL / OPIN

SENTENCE/
QUESTION

EVALUATION/
OPINION

Who left this

The artist
created a

foul,
fantastic,

They wore a

beautiful,

Olodum is a

powerful,

APPEAR /
QUAL
APPEARANCE/
QUALITY
rotten,
huge,
mobiusshaped,
life-size,

AGE / PER

COLOR

ORIGIN

TYPE

NOUN

AGE /
PERIOD

COLOR/
PATTERN

ORIGIN /
MATERIAL

TYPE /
FUNCTION

NOUN /
PRONOUN

two-week-old
shiny,

stainlesssteel

red-andyellow

feathered,
Chinesedragon
Brazilian

hypnotic,
energetic,

He wore some mod / fab

1960's

He was an

intelligent,

young,

red-flowered/ cotton
patterned
black,
Portuguese

This is my

sleek,

new,

black,

She chose a

cute,

pink,

banana?
sculpture.
costume.
Sambareggae
bell-bottom/
discotheque
water /
hunting
HD (high
definition)
girls', Hello
Kitty,
bowling

ensemble.
pants.
dog.
iPad.
ball.

Speakers rarely use more than three or four adjectives before a noun unless they are trying to be very descriptive.
*Nominal modifiers (Noun Modifiers or -ing modifiers) may usually be restated as a prepositional phrase: for
hunting, for girls, by Sanrio , by Swiss Army (a post-nominal prep. phrase).

Variations
Appearance

Appearance: size, shape, and condition

SENTENCE
SENTENCE

(SIZE)
(SIZE

(SHAPE)
SHAPE

(CONDITION)
CONDITION

NOUN PHRASE
NOUN

ripe
We picked a

gigantic
ripe (condition)
round (shape)

round
large (size)
ripe (condition)

tomato.
heart-shaped (shape)
jumbo (size)

ripe (adj.) ready to pick and to eat

A person's preference for word order may vary with the use of a synonym (large, big, jumbo, gigantic), or with word
length (hyphenated words last).

Post-Nominal Modifiers
Modifiers placed after the noun

These are summaries from other pages in this website.

Function and Type Modifiers

BEFORE

AFTER

Moidifiers for function or type may be placed before the noun.

Function modifiers, mostly occur as -ing verb forms. Type
modifiers often occur as past participle modifiers.

Function and type may also be expressed with a preposition

phrase: function by; type with + noun. See For +
Gerund and By / With

FUNCTION

NOUN FOR VERB-ING

Driving classes begin next week.

We'll be driving an off-road vehicle. vehicle (n.) auto, car

Classes for driving begin next week.

We'll be driving a vehicle for off-road driving. (SUV)

TYPE

NOUN WITH + NOUN

Sugar cookies are my favorite.

Whitney bought some laced shoes. (shoes with ties)
Whitney bought some high-heeled shoes.

Cookies with sugar are my favorite. (made with)

Whitney bought some shoes with laces.

Whitney bought some shoes with high-heels.

Type Maker or Brand Modifiers

BEFORE

AFTER

Designer, artiist, maker, seller, or brand-name modifiers are

usually placed before the noun.

The same may also be expressed with a prepositional phrase

placed after the noun. Use by when the source is a maker
and from when the source is a store. See By
Phrases (passive voice).

MAKER

NOUN BY / FROM VERB-ING

Nike shoes are very durable. (brand name)

She prefers to buy Macy's shoes. (department store)
We bought a Picasso painting. (artist's work of art)
Mother's pies are delicious.

Shoes by Nike are very durable. (made by Nike)

She prefers to buy shoes from Macy's. (sold in Macy's)
We bought a painting by Picasso. (painted by Picasso)
Pies by mother are delicious. (ocommercial names only)

"Unbreakable words" something

BEFORE

AFTER

When some is used as a quantifier before a noun, the

modifier is placed directly before the noun.

When some is part of a compound word (someone,

something, somewhere), the modifier is placed after the
word. Note that some means an unknown one, thing, or
place. See Some A Vague One.

SOME QUANTIFIER

SOME UNKNOWN, UNIDENTIFIED

Some funny shows are on television tonight

Something funny will be on television tonight. (I can't think

the name.)
Let's go somewhere quiet. (Any place, yet unidentified)
Someone new will be working here. (Unknown, yet
unidentified)

We'd prefer some quiet places to work.

We hired some new employees.

Adjective Complements (resulting state modifiers)

BEFORE

AFTER

A modifier may be used after a BE verb (as a predicate

complement) or before a noun to describe the noun's
condition at that time.

With some verbs, an action and its resulting state can be

combined into one sentence. In these examples, the adjective
indicating the resulting state is placed after the direct object.
The adjective modifies the object. SeeAdjective Complements
to Verbs.

PRE-NOUN EXISTING

POST-NOUN RESULTNG STATE

The table is clean. It's a clean table.

He wiped the table. As a result, it is clean now. He wiped

the table clean.
He painted his house. As a result, it is blue now. He painted
his house blue.
He cracked the egg. As a result, it is open now. He cracked
the egg open. (ready)

His house is blue. It's a blue house.

The egg is cracked. It's a cracked egg. (damaged)