Order of adjectives before a noun

Sometimes we use several adjectives together.

My aunt lives in a lovely small cottage.

In the garden there was a beautiful large square wooden table.

Adjectives like small / large / square / wooden are fact adjectives. They give us objective information about something (age, size, colour etc.). Adjectives like lovely / beautiful are opinion adjectives. They tell us what someone thinks of something. Opinion adjectives usually go before fact adjectives:

opinion fact

a nice sunny day

a beautiful large square wooden table

Sometimes there are two or more fact adjectives. Usually (but not always) we put fact adjectives in this order:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

size age shape colour origin material purpose NOUN

a tall young man

big blue eyes

a small black plastic bag

a long brown wooden walking stick

an old French clock

Adjectives of size and length (big / small / tall / short / long etc.) usually go before adjectives of shape and width (round / fat / thin / slim / wide etc.):

a large round table a tall thin girl a long narrow street

If there is an even wider choice of adjectives before a noun, their order can be like this:

size age shape colour P.II origin material type purpose NOUN

a tall young well-built man

big blue eyes

a small black plastic bag

a long brown wooden walking stick

an old round French clock

an old plastic container

a round biscuit tin

Exercise 64. Put the adjectives in brackets in the correct position.

Example: a modern house (attractive) − an attractive modern house

1. a young girl (pretty) 2. a handsome man (young) 3. a kitchen cupboard (oak) 4. brown bag (leather) 5. an American film (old) 6. big eyes (blue) 7. a cold day (rainy) 8. a hot bath (nice) 9. an old coat (worn) 10. a red car (old / little) 11. a gold watch (small / antique) 12. a little village (old / lovely)

13. a beautiful table (wooden / round) 14.an unusual ring (silver) 15. an old lady (nice) 16. a large nose (red) 17. a sunny day (lovely) 18. an ugly dress (orange) 19. a metal box (black / small) 20. a long face (thin) 21. a wide avenue (long) 22. a big cat (fat / red) 23. long hair (fair / beautiful) 24. an old painting (interesting / Flemish)

Exercise 65. Put the adjectives in brackets in the correct order to complete the sentence. Then decide which city the speaker is talking about.