ADJECTIVES So what is the correct order of

adjectives before a noun?

gfhg The order of adjectives before a noun is usually
the following:
Word Order Opinion – Size – Age – Shape – Color – Origin –
Material – Purpose
If we take the first letter of each one, it
creates OSASCOMP which is an easy way to
remember the order.
Let’s look at an example about describing a bag.
 It is an ugly small old thin red Italian
cotton sleeping bag
It is not common to have so many adjectives
before a noun, but I do this so you can see the
correct order of adjectives.
Ugly is an opinion, small is a size, old refers to
age, thin refers to shape, red is a
color, Italian refers to its origin, cotton refers to
the material the bag is made of, sleeping is the
purpose of the bag.
I will go into more details about each of these
categories in a moment. First, let’s see two more
examples:
 A beautiful long white French silk wedding
dress.
What is an adjective?
 Large ancient Greek clay flower vases.
An adjective is a word that describes something
Let’s study the first one.
(a noun).
Here we have a dress. Dress is a noun, the name
An adjective gives us more information about a
of a thing. Let’s describe this dress.
person or thing.
What type of dress is it? What is the purpose of
this dress?
Correct order of adjectives It is used for weddings so it is…
Adjectives sometimes appear after the verb To  a wedding dress.
Be (CARD – LINK TO VIDEO) Let’s image the dress is made of silk. It isn’t made
The order is To Be + Adjective. of plastic or gold, it is made of silk.
 He is tall. Silk is a material so it goes before the purpose.
We say it is:
 She is happy.
Adjectives sometimes appear before a noun.  a silk wedding dress.
The order is Adjective + Noun. Now, this dress was made in France. France is a
noun, its adjective is French.
 Slow car
Its origin is French. Its origin, French, goes before
 Brown hat the material, Silk. So we say it is:
BUT… Sometimes you want to use more than one
 a French silk wedding dress.
adjective to describe something (or someone).
Let’s add the color of the dress. What color is it?
What happens if a hat is both brown AND old?
White. Color goes before Origin so we say it is:
Do we say… an old brown hat OR a brown old  hat?
An old brown hat is correct because a certain  a white French silk wedding dress.
order for adjectives is expected. What is the shape of this dress? Is it long or
A brown old hat sounds incorrect or not natural. short? It is long. The adjective Long goes under
the category of shape because shape also covers
 weight or length. (We will see more about this in a
moment) We now say it is:
SIZE
Size: Adjectives about size tell us how big or small
 a long white French silk wedding dress. something is.
Let’s add one more adjective. Is the dress Some examples of adjectives referring to size are:
beautiful or ugly? Well, you should always say it is
 big, small, tall, huge, tiny, large, enormous
beautiful or it will ruin her wedding day.
For example: a big fat red monster.
Beautiful is an opinion and adjectives about
Notice how big is first because it refers to size
opinions go before all the other adjectives. So our
and fat is next because it refers to shape or
final description of the dress is:
weight. Then finally we have the color red before
 a beautiful long white French silk the noun.
wedding dress.
Now of course we don’t normally add so many AGE
adjectives before a noun. This example is just to
Age: Adjectives of age tell us how old someone or
show you the order of adjectives.
something is. How old is it?
Some examples of adjectives referring to age are:
The order is NOT fixed  old, young, new, antique, ancient
IMPORTANT: The order of adjectives before a For example: a scary old house
noun is NOT 100% FIXED. Scary is my opinion, old refers to the age of the
This chart is only a guide and is the order that is house. Scary is before old because opinion is
preferred. before age. 
You may see or hear slight variations of the order
of adjectives in real life though what appears in
the chart is the order that is expected the most. SHAPE
Now, let’s look at each type of adjective in more Shape / Weight / LengthThese adjectives tell us
detail (with examples)… about the shape of something or how long or
short it is. It can also refer to the weight of
someone or something.
Types of Adjectives Some examples of adjectives referring to shape
are:
round, square, long, fat, heavy, oval,
OPINION 

Opinion: These adjectives explain what we think skinny, straight

about something. This is our opinion, attitude or For example: a small round table.
observations that we make. Some people may What is the shape of the table? It is round.
not agree with you because their opinion may be What is the size of the table? It is small.
different. These adjectives almost always come The order is small round table because size is
before all other adjectives. before shape.
Some examples of adjectives referring to opinion
are: COLOR
 delicious, lovely, nice, cool, pretty, Color: The color or approximate color of
comfortable, difficult something.
For example: She is sitting in Some examples of adjectives referring to color
a comfortable green armchair. are:
Comfortable is my opinion or observation, the  green, blue, reddish, purple, pink, orange,
armchair looks comfortable. The armchair is red, black, white
also green. (adding ISH at the end makes the color an
Here we have two adjectives. The order approximate color, in this case reddish is
is comfortable green armchair because Opinion “approximately red”)
(comfortable) is before Color (green). Our example: a long yellow dress.
What is the color of the dress? It is yellow.
The dress is also long. Long which is an adjective
 of shape or more precisely length, is before an opinion. Some people think my desk is messy. So,
adjective of color. the order is opinion before purpose.
ORIGIN
Origin: Tells us where something is from or was
created.
So this is the general order of adjectives in
Some examples of adjectives referring to origin
English and you can remember them by the
are:
mnemonic OSASCOMP.
 American, British, Indian, Turkish, Chilean, BUT did you know that we could add some extra
Australian, Brazilian categories?
Remember, nationalities and places of origin start
with a capital letter. BONUS ADJECTIVE GROUPS
For example: an ancient Egyptian boy.
We can add the adjective categories
His origin is Egyptian. Egyptian needs to be with a
of Number and Condition.
capital E which is the big E.
Ancient refers to age so it goes before the
adjective of origin. NUMBER
Number: Tells us the amount or quantity of
something.
MATERIAL It is not only for normal cardinal numbers like,
Material: What is the thing made of or what is it
one, two, three… but also other words that refer
constructed of?
to quantity such as many or several.
Some examples of adjectives referring to material
Our examples of adjectives referring to numbers
are:
are:
 gold, wooden, plastic, synthetic, silk,
 One, two, three, many, several
paper, cotton, silver For example: three hungry dogs
For example: a beautiful pearl necklace Number adjectives go before all the other
Pearl is a material. They generally come from adjectives, including adjectives about opinion.
oysters. Hungry is a condition or state so the order is
The necklace is made of what material? It is made Three hungry dogs.
of pearls.
The necklace is also beautiful so I put this
adjective of opinion before the adjective referring
CONDITION
Condition: Tells us the general condition or state
to material.
of something
Our examples of adjectives referring to condition
PURPOSE or state are:
Purpose/Qualifier/Use:What is it used for? What
 Clean, wet, rich, hungry, broken, cold, hot,
is the purpose or use of this thing? Many of these
adjectives end in dirty
–ING but not always. For example: Two smelly old shoes.
Some examples of adjectives referring to purpose Smelly is a condition or state. Smelly is
are: before old which refers to age. The
number two is at the beginning as numbers
 gardening (as in gardening gloves),
always are.
shopping (as in shopping bag), riding (as in riding
boots)
Our example: a messy computer desk
What is the purpose of the desk? It is a place for
my computer, it is designed specifically to use
with a computer. It is a computer desk. In this
case, the desk is also very messy. Messy is an