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Introduction
An old, black guitar or a black, old guitar? Believe it or not, one sounds much more natural. We have some general rules about adjective order in a sentence. Learn about it with grammar guru Georgie and presenters Phil and Pippa.
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Grammar explanation
Adjective order
When we use adjectives together, we tend to put them in a set order. Usually, we put opinions before factual description. While we don't usually use more than two or three adjectives together, here is the most common order to follow:
1. opinion
e.g. amazing, disgusting, pretty
2. size
e.g. big, tall, tiny
3. quality
e.g. messy, shiny, new
4. age
e.g. old, young
5. shape
e.g. rectangular, round
6. colour
e.g. silver, green, yellow
7. origin
e.g. Mexican, Turkish, Japanese
8. material type
e.g. wooden, plastic, metal
9. purpose
e.g. baking, building, walking
Compound adjectives
Adjectives with more than one word e.g. dark brown, sugar-free, traditional-looking
Adjective phrases
Phrases that contain an adjective but give more information e.g. dark around the edges, very interested, keen on sports
Examples
She has an amazing, multi-coloured, Turkish rug in her living room.
There are some old, leather, walking boots in the shed.
I'm looking for a shiny, new, gold watch for my Dad's birthday.
To do
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