We often use multiple adjectives to describe the characteristics and features of nouns.

  • Example: ‘The girl is taking her big white dog out for walk’.

In English, adjectives follow a particular order, therefore, you cannot say ‘white big dog’.

Adjective Order 

By learning the order, you can produce complicated sentences including many adjectives without any confusion. The order is as follows:

Opinion (e.g. beautiful, polite, difficult)

↓

Size (e.g. small, tall)

↓

Age (e.g. old, new, young, antique) / Temperature (e.g. cold)

↓

Shape (e.g. round, square, flat, sharp)

↓

Colour (e.g. red, white, pale, dark)

↓

Origin (e.g. Spanish, British)

↓

Material (e.g. wooden, cotton)

↓

Purpose (e.g. banking, to stay young)

Study IELTS in London or Manchester

There are many small rules, such as adjective order, which determine your English level and these are especially important if you want to get an IELTS score of 7.0 or higher. Reading and listening to English is a great way to learn these tricky rules and instinctively know which adjective order sounds right!

You can improve your English to advanced level by learning these rules and studying IELTS in London or Manchester. Take a Practice Test to learn your current level and get in touch with our Language Centre today.