The Order of Adjectives

opinion (how good?)	size (how big?)	shape	age (how old?)	colour	origin (where from)	material (made of?)	purpose or type (what kind?)	noun
nice	big	round	old	blue	French	glass	fruit	bowl

When there are 2 colour adjectives, we use “AND”: a black and white dress but a long black dress

We say: the first two days, the next few weeks

We use adjectives after BE/GET/BECOME/SEEM:

Be careful! I’m tired and getting hungry. It’s getting dark. Your friend seems tired.

Adjectives after: SEEM, LOOK, FEEL, SOUND, TASTE, SMELL

You look tired. She sounds tired. This tea tastes a bit strange. I feel nice.

After other verbs ADVERBS are used (how?): Drive carefully! Susan plays the piano very well.

1. Put the adjectives in brackets in the correct order.

1. a beautiful table (wooden, round) __________________________________________

2. an unusual ring (gold) ___________________________________________________

3. a new pullover (nice) ___________________________________________________

4. a new pullover (green) __________________________________________________

5. an old house (beautiful) _________________________________________________

6. black gloves ( leather) __________________________________________________

7. an American film (old) __________________________________________________

8. a long face (thin) ______________________________________________________

9. big clouds (black) _____________________________________________________

10. a sunny day (lovely) ___________________________________________________

11. a wide avenue (long) ___________________________________________________

12. a metal box (black/small) _______________________________________________

13. a big cat (fat/black) ____________________________________________________

14. a little village (old/lovely) _______________________________________________

15. long hair (black/beautiful) _______________________________________________

16. an old painting (interesting/French) _______________________________________

17. an enormous umbrella (red/yellow) _______________________________________

Put the adjectives into the correct place. Note: When there are 2 or more adjectives of the same type, the more general adjective goes before the more specific one.

1. I love ice-cream ( strawberry, Italian, tasty) – I love tasty Italian strawberry ice cream (opinion, origin, material)

2. They have a sofa ( leather, navy-blue, modern)

3. He loves his bike (new, red, expensive, mountain)

4. She has a voice ( lovely, singing, pure)

5. He’s just sold that suit to a woman ( beautiful, slim, tall, French, young)

6. She bought curtains ( brown and orange, dining-room)

7. She bakes cakes (chocolate, delicious, birthday, round)

8. June has a puppy ( tiny, brown, fluffy)

9. She was given a dress ( black, spectacular, Italian, evening)

10. He bought a racquet (tennis, graphite, new)

11. He has a grandfather (French, ninety-year-old, wonderful)

12. We watched a film ( boring, German, black and white)

13. She wears lipstick (pink, horrible, glossy)

14. We used to have a teacher (strict, old, biology, American)

15. It was a dress ( wedding, antique, cream, stunning, lace)

16. Yesterday we went to the club ( huge, sports, modern)

17. Mary has a job (sales, demanding, new)

18. The house has a kitchen (large, well-equipped, white, modern)

19. It was a pool ( marble, huge, white, shining)

20. He has a bag ( black, big, school)

21. I have rarely seen such a film ( American, well-made, detective)

2. Write the following in another way using the first…/the next… the last …

1. the first day and the second day of the course the first two days of the course

2. next week and the week later ________________________________________

3. yesterday and the day before yesterday ________________________________

4. the first week and the second week ___________________________________

5. tomorrow and a few days after that ___________________________________

6. questions 1,2, and 3 of the examination _______________________________

7. next year and the year after ________________________________________

8. the last day of our holiday and the two days before that___________________

3. Complete each sentence with a verb (in the correct form) and an adjective from the boxes.

Feel look seem smell taste sound

Awful fine interesting nice upset wet

1. Ann seemed upset this morning. Do you know what was wrong?

2. I can’t eat this. I’ve just tried it and it ____________________________________.

3. I wasn’t very well yesterday but I __________________________________today.

4. What beautiful flowers! They ______________________________________too.

5. You __________________________. Have you been out in the rain?

6. Jim was telling me about his new job. It _______________________quite___________________, much better

than his old job.

4. Choose the correct word.

1. This tea tastes a bit strange/strangely.

2. I always feel _____________________________________when the sun is shining (happy/happily).

3. The children were playing ____________________________________ in the garden (happy/happily).

4. The man became ___________________________________ when the manager of the restaurant asked him to leave ( violent/violently).

5. You look ________________________________________! Are you all right? (terrible/terribly)

6. There’s no point in a doing a job if you don’t do it proper/properly.

Adjectives ending in –ing and – ed:

-ING		- ED
people	things	people	things
an interesting man	an interesting film	He is interested in music	-
a boring person	a boring film	He is bored.	-

Note: Adjectives ending –ed have the same form as past participles. The –ed adjective tells us how a person feels: the worried patient, a classroom of bored students

Adjectives ending –ing have the same form as the present participle. The –ing tells us about the effect that smth. or someone has on our feelings: a boring teacher, a disappointing film

1. Complete the sentences for each situation. Choose the correct ending: -ED or –ING.

1. The film wasn’t as good as we had expected.

The film was disapoint___.

We were disapoint___ with the film.

2. Diana teaches young children. It’s a very hard job but she enjoys it.

She enjoys her job but it’s often exhaust____.

At the end of a day’s work she is often exhaust___.

3. It’s been raining all day. I hate this weather.

This weather is depress____.

This weather makes me depress____.

4. Clare is going to the United States next month. She has never been there before.

It will be an excit___ experience for her.

Going to new places is always excit____.

She is really excit____ about going to the United States.

2. Choose the correct word.

1. I was disappointing/disappointed with the film. I had expected it to be better.

2. Are you interesting/interested in football?

3. The football match was quite exciting/excited. I enjoyed it.

4. It’s sometimes embarrassing/embarrassed when you have to ask people for money.

5. Do you easily get embarrassing/embarrassed?

6. I had never expected her to get the job. I was really amazing/amazed when I was offered it.

7. She has really learnt very fast. She has made astonishing/astonished progress.

8. I didn’t find the situation funny. I was not amusing/amused.

9. It was a really terrifying/terrified experience. Afterwards everybody was very shocking/shocked.

10. Why do you always look so boring/bored? Is your life really so boring/bored?

11. He’s one of the most boring/bored people I’ve ever met. He never stops talking and he never says anything interesting/interested.

• Attorney general генеральный прокурор

• Notary public государственный нотариус

• Court marshal военный трибунал

• Secretary general генеральный секретарь

• President elect вновь избранный президент

1. SO and SUCH

SO is used	SUCH is used
Before an adjective She is so babyish. I’m so hungry that I could eat a horse. Before an adverb He spoke so quickly that I couldn’t understand him.	Before a noun She is such a baby. Before an adjective + noun It was such a comfortable bed that I went straight to sleep.

Put in SUCH or SO.

1. The weather was ____________ cold that all the football matches were cancelled.

2. It was ___________ hot weather that nobody could do any work.

3. It was ___________good film that I went to see it three times.

4. The book was ___________ boring that I stopped reading it.

5. They’ve got______________ a nice house that I always love staying there.

6. And their garden is ___________ beautiful.

7. His voice is ____________ pleasant that I could listen to him all day.

8. I don’t know why she talks in _________a loud voice.

2. Complete the sentences , using expressions with SUCH and SO.

1. It was __________ that I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face.

2. The canteen served _________ food that nobody could eat it.

3. It was _________ car that the police couldn’t catch it.

4. The case was __________ that nobody could lift it.

5. It was __________ lecture that I couldn’t keep my eyes open.

6. This language is __________ that foreigners can’t learn it.

7. He was ___________ person that everybody liked him.

8. It was _____________ that I went to sleep standing up.

9. I wish my _____________ wasn’t/weren’t _________________.

10. I wish I hadn’t got _________________.

Certain adjectives can be used metaphorically: silky skin (soft and smooth like a silk), but a silk dress (a dress made of silk), stony look (disapproving look) but a stone wall (a wall made of stone). Golden eagle ( a bird with gold-brown feathers), but a gold ring ( a ring made of gold), feathery snowflakes ( soft and delicate like feathers), but a feather pillow ( a pillow containing feathers), metallic paint ( paint which looks like metal) but metal-rimmed spectacles ( glasses with a rim made of metal), leathery meat ( too firm and difficult to cut) but a leather coat ( a coat made of leather), a leaden sky (dark sky, the colour of lead) but lead pipes (pipes made of lead), a steely character (a hard, strong unkind character) but a steel-plated tank ( a vehicle with a steel covering).

Choose the correct adjective.

1. A gold/golden eagle glided gracefully across the sky.

2. She ruined her silk/silky suit

3. We had to climb over a low stone/stony wall.

4. He approached the task with steel/steely determination.

5. Leathery/leather coats never seem to go out of fashion.

6. This plant has soft feathery/feather leaves.

7. The manager’s stone/stony expression showed that all was not well.

8. She was given an expensive gold/golden watch for her twenty-first birthday.

Some adjectives can be used with the as nouns to talk about groups of people in general:

The blind, the deaf, the disabled, the elderly, the homeless, the hungry, the living, the middle-aged, the old, the poor, the rich, the sick, the strong, the unemployed, the weak, etc.

Cf: Disabled people need help and understanding. The disabled need help and understanding.

Fill in ‘ the’ where necessary.

1. He takes ___ disabled children in his area riding on Friday morning.

2. When the government decided to raise taxes ___ rich people were unhappy and ___ poor were devastated.

3. Christmas can be a very sad time for ___ lonely people and ___ homeless.

4. We were relieved to hear that all ___ injured were recovered from the wreckage before the plane exploded.

5. ___ survivors carried ___ injured people to the ambulances.

6. ___ deaf communicate by using sign language.