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Order of Adjectives: The white big dog?

12/12/2013

Imagine you really want to buy a dog, so you go to a pet store.

This pet store has hundreds of different dogs. How are you going to describe what kind of dog you want?

You can say, "I want to buy a dog," but this doesn't describe the kind of dog you want. This is where we can use adjectives to describe the dog (noun).

Think of all the adjectives to describe the dog you want to buy. Would the dog be big or small? old or young? shy or outgoing? white or brown?

Let's pretend you want a white dog that is big in size, how do you say this?

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When you use more than one adjective, you have to put them in the right order or it will sound very strange. Do you say, "I want a big white dog" or "I want a white big dog?"

The first one is correct. Why? Look at the chart below.

If "big" is size and "white" is color, then it should come first because size is number (2) and color is number (5) . You can use this for all orders of adjectives. Once you keep practicing, the order will become more and more familiar to you. A quick and easy way is to always place the adjective that is easy to change first. Number 1 (Opinion) can be changed more easily than number 6 (Origin: where something is from). It is easy for me to change my opinion of someone, but it is not easy for me to change where they come from. Therefore, place the opinion adjective first.

When you have time, think about all your close friends and family members, what adjectives would you use to describe them? Think of three adjectives for each person and put them in order.
For example: My best friend is a beautiful slender American woman.

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Test yourself!
Put the adjectives in the correct order:

(1) Joe is a (American / young / tall) basketball star.
(2) I want to buy a (funny / red) mug for my brother for Christmas.
(3) My mother just bought a (blue / long / beautiful) dress for herself.
(4) All my students are (smart / young / British) girls.
(5)All I want for Christmas is a pair of (black / vintage / Italian / leather) boots.
(6) My teacher always gives (boring / long) lectures.

(1) Joe is a tall young American basketball star.
(2) I want to buy a funny red mug for my brother for Christmas.
(3) My mother just bought a beautiful long blue dress for herself.
(4) All my students are smart young British girls.
(5) All I want for Christmas is a pair of vintage black Italian leather boots.
(6) My teacher always gives long boring lectures.

15 Comments

olga

8/10/2014 08:18:32 am

Hi there! With regard to number 6, I would like to know your grammar rationalization for it. If "boring" is an opinion and it comes first, and "long" is a size and it comes second, then why is the correct phrase not "boring long"?

I understand that it sounds correct to a native speaker, but as a teacher, this does not seem to match the grammar rule.

Thanks!

Olga

Jenny

8/18/2014 08:10:47 am

Hi Olga,

I hear you on this and am just as frustrated as you! Number 6 was a poor example on my part as it does not follow the rule but it very much follows the intuition of a native speaker of what sounds “correct.”

Although there is a specific rule that should be followed, I have found that it does not always apply and this has not just made teaching very challenging but most importantly, very frustrating and discouraging for language learners.

As for that particular example, if we follow the rule, it should be, “My teacher always gives boring long lectures.” However, as you mentioned, a native speaker would more likely say, “My teacher always gives long boring lectures.” I’ve noticed the order of size and opinion being flipped in many instances, causing much confusion. For example, “ The big beautiful house” or “The short interesting essay”.
I’m not sure if it may have something to do with the context and speaker’s intention. If you find this thesis on Order of Adjectives (http://repository.cmu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1185&context=hsshonors) ,Rosato advocates for the adjective order of “quality” to follow size (as the order provides contrasting meaning). For example, “The curious little man” versus “The little curious man” both describes the man differently.

This is definitely a very tricky topic to understand fully and I have not been able to find any solid reason as to why we avoid the rule in some instances. Thank you for bringing this up and I’m sorry I cannot provide a grammar rationalization. If there are other teachers out there, please feel free to chime in! The only thing I could suggest to English language learners is to use the rule simply as a guide but the best way to “get it” is to engage in conversation and be exposed to frequent input, not just memorizing ordering rules.

Please do let me know if you are able to find any better explanations explaining why some sentences do not match the grammar rule!

Jenny link

8/18/2014 08:09:45 am

Katrina VanTassel-Skinner link

5/10/2016 11:57:15 am

The problem with "My teacher gives long boring lectures," is that both long and boring can be perceived as opinion. I'm sure everyone can think of a Teacher's class that always seemed to be too short and another Teacher's class that seemed too long, even though both were equal in the number of minutes.

John

12/21/2016 11:32:36 am

Long can only be described as an opinion in the way that 'red' can - one person may see pink, another orange. However both 'red' and 'long' describe physical attributes whereas 'boring' does not. 'Long' therefore should really follow the rule as laid down.

Jesús Rodríguez Ontiveros

5/29/2016 06:23:32 pm

Yes dear Katrina, I agree with you, both adjectives used in sentence 6 can be classified as opinion adjectives, then we should place them as they sound better.

Jackie

8/1/2016 10:33:35 am

The degree to which the adjective can be changed would place age down at the bottom.

J.ff.Birmingham

11/2/2016 04:20:48 am

I disagree. Age, unfortunately, does nothing but change. Also, young and old, these are relative terms. One young student once asked my age, and I told her to guess. She guessed 17. '17' exclaimed, and she replied with great seriousness, 'Yes, because you are very, very old."

Batbayr

2/13/2017 10:34:40 am

hudlaa shaadim be

Migisha

6/13/2017 09:35:40 pm

i think the list is incomplete! number is missing, and should come first like: three beautiful large young round brown British wool+ noun

Gulbanu

6/23/2017 10:48:49 pm

Sorry, looking at these examples, I found that when it comes to two opinions we should say shorter one first. Do you agree?

Janie

7/3/2017 04:34:21 am

Thank you for the post. But I think it would've been better if you said 'adopt' a dog maybe from a shelter, not buy.

Jamie Romeyn

9/16/2017 12:52:01 pm

Thank you so much for this post. The graphic to remember adjective order is so clean and simple. Is there any way to download it so that I may share it with my elementary students?

The English Student

10/11/2017 09:55:13 pm

Hi Jamie, You're most welcome. I'm glad you like this graphic! You can download it by clicking the image to enlarge it or right click to save it. You are welcome to share with your students as long as you do not alter the image or remove any copyright signs or logos. Thank you!