Adjectives describe nouns, and are usually placed either before a noun (as part of the noun phrase) or after a noun, pronoun or verb.
Their place in a sentence, and in noun phrases, is explained briefly in the ELB Word Order in English Guide, where the general rules are quite simple. However, when we use certain specific adjectives, or more than one adjective, different word order considerations are important. Mistakes here can sound very strange to native speakers, and may confuse meaning.
This article explores adjective positions in full detail, adapted from the book Word Order in English Sentences, and includes an exercise at the bottom.
AAlacing a Single Adjective Before or After Nouns
Adjectives are placed directly before a noun to add detail to the noun. In a noun phrase, with additional words (such as determiners and adverbs), the adjective should be the last word before the noun. When they are removed from the sentence, the sentence should still make sense:
- He had some strangely glowing bananas.
Some adjectives can only come before the noun, such as whole or entire.
- They ate the whole cheese.
Adjectives are placed after a noun, pronoun or verb when they qualify a verb that complements the subject. Simply: when the verb describes or changes the noun, the adjective provides the detail (the what).
- He is tall.
- This text became complicated.
These adjectives completes the sentence, and cannot be left out.
Some adjectives can only come after the noun, such as asleep, awake, and alive.
- They all celebrated, the donkey was alive! NOT They all celebrated the alive donkey.
Word Order with Multiple Adjectives
When you have more than one adjective, their word order is not always firmly structured, but there are loose rules you can follow.
General Before Specific
- The dark medieval castle. NOT The medieval dark castle.
The second sentence could confuse the meaning as it sounds like the darkness is specific (for instance that it is either a particular medieval darkness, or that it is part of the name/label of the castle). This is easy to avoid with one general rule: adjectives should be put in order of how specific they are, starting general and becoming more specific.
Opinion Before Description
- A beautiful golden vase. NOT A golden beautiful vase.
Opinion-based adjectives should come before fact-based adjectives, as describing adjectives should be placed closer to the word they describe. In the second sentence, it could sound as though the beauty is golden, not the vase.
More Complex Adjective Word Order
Adjective word order can also be grouped into more specific groups, which follow this order:
| 1. Size | 2. Shape | 3. Colour | 4. Origin | 5. Material | 6. Use | Noun |
| Big | long | brown | 20th century | wooden | serving | spoons. |
This is not a firm order though, and there are many exceptions. Commonly, Material and Origin are often reversed, to place Origin directly before Use.
Listing Adjectives
When you list a large number of adjectives before a noun, they can be presented as a list, separated by commas. You do not normally need a conjunction (and) when the adjectives are before the noun, but you do need and when the list comes after the noun. Note: it is generally better English to use less describing words, to be clearer.
- We have a small, square, beige car.
- Our car is small, square and beige.
You can sometimes choose to use and for a list of adjectives before a noun to change the word order and put emphasis on the final adjective (particularly useful for opinion adjectives):
- They entered a dark, dreary and frankly disgusting sewer.
Adjective Word Order Exercise
Put the adjectives in brackets into the sentences below in the correct places and order:
- I want a dog. (new, cute)
- Is Mark ? I need to talk to him. (awake)
- That circus is (crazy, loud, strange).
- The bank has an door. (old, impressive)
- This painting is my favourite. (19th Century, landscape)
- Carl asked for a coffee. (hot, tall, milky)
- It’s getting outside. (cold, wet)
- My car is for sale. (red, fast)
- I like the pearls. (white, round, Elizabethan)
- Their house was simply too big. (grotesque, modern, bulbous)
Suggested Answers
- I want a cute new dog.
- Is Mark awake? I need to talk to him.
- That circus is strange, crazy and loud.
- The bank has an impressive old door.
- This 19th Century landscape painting is my favourite.
- Carl asked for a hot, tall milky coffee.
- It’s getting cold and wet outside.
- My fast red car is for sale.
- I like the round white Elizabethan pearls.
- Their grotesque bulbous modern house was simply too big.
Read Word Order in English Sentences
This article is expanded upon in the bestselling grammar guide, Word Order in English Sentences, available in eBook and paperback.
If you found this useful, check out the complete book for more.
Thank you very much. The article is very useful and comprehensive
That’s awesome, thanks.
Thank you for another great article! I have a question: do you always place commas between multiple adjectives? I noticed it was done so in the ‘We have a small, square, beige car’ example but not in the suggested answers 8,9, and 10. Thank you in advance!
Hi Marta,
Ah, I thought that was covered in the article but I don’t think it is – commas in these circumstances are rather flexible, so the short answer is that we don’t always use commas, no. Where we have a long list of adjectives, we’d often use commas, particularly when it’s a list that includes a conjunction. There’s no hard rule on this, some general rules may be put in place, such as add commas for lists including more than two adjectives, or when we want to add emphasis to an adjective in an unusual order. The problem is that sometimes the need for commas or not may depend on what type of adjectives we’re using. For example, if we have multiple adjectives of the same type, commas would help separate similar ideas and also show that they are considering different aspects (e.g. “the big, unusual, weirdly-shaped box”). If we have multiple different short adjectives that flow together quite naturally, we might have no commas as it’s clear we’re building one picture rather than considering different aspects (e.g. “The cheap big grey coat is my favourite.”).
I hope that helps!
Phil
Thank you so much, this is really helpful!
Hi, adjective clauses can’t stand alone because they need independent clauses . but a lot of time I have seen sentence like this.
Lucy , who had been living near my house.
The girl who topped the class .
Could you explain can we use these sentence in our formal writing.
Hi Sana,
That is what we would call a sentence fragment, essentially a sentence that is missing a main verb. Technically, in prose these are grammatically incorrect, and it would be best to avoid them in formal writing, but they are used in practice (for example in more creative writing) to add information that complements the previous sentence. Essentially these are phrases or clauses that would otherwise be connected by other punctuation such as a dash or semi-colon, but have been separated to create a new sentence instead. This is usually done to create a dramatic pause, or to add something is perhaps surprising.
Note these may also be used in response to questions, when information is requested and the fragment completes that information.
Phil
Tariq, who taught her cusswords in pashto, who liked ted clover leaves, who frowned and made a low ,moaning sound,when he chewed,Who had a light birthmark beneath his left collarbone shaped like
upside -down mandolin.
Hi , we have multiple adjective clauses one after another modifying the same noun in the above example. These kinds of sentence I see in while reading books. Can we write same in formal writing and exams or can we drop relative pronoun and place and in place of comma
Sir ,did you receive my cooment
Hi Sana,
Indeed this is creative writing, which relies on its own style – while it’s understandable and there would be nothing really wrong with it in the right context, in a formal setting or exam it would inappropriate (unless it was, for example, a writing exam which allowed creative use).
Phil