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    Adjectives-Word Order: Red Car Old Hat

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    The document discusses the order of adjectives when used before a noun in English. It provides a chart showing the typical order: opinion, size, shape, condition, age, color, pattern, origin, material, purpose, noun. Adjectives relating to opinion generally come first. The order follows logical categories from abstract to concrete. Several examples demonstrate correctly ordering multiple adjectives according to these guidelines.

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    Adjectives-Word Order: Red Car Old Hat

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    Fider Saputra T
    39 views5 pages
    The document discusses the order of adjectives when used before a noun in English. It provides a chart showing the typical order: opinion, size, shape, condition, age, color, pattern, origin, material, purpose, noun. Adjectives relating to opinion generally come first. The order follows logical categories from abstract to concrete. Several examples demonstrate correctly ordering multiple adjectives according to these guidelines.

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    Adjectives-Word Order

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    The document discusses the order of adjectives when used before a noun in English. It provides a chart showing the typical order: opinion, size, shape, condition, age, color, pattern, origin, material, purpose, noun. Adjectives relating to opinion generally come first. The order follows logical categories from abstract to concrete. Several examples demonstrate correctly ordering multiple adjectives according to these guidelines.

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    Adjectives-Word Order: Red Car Old Hat

    Uploaded by

    Fider Saputra T
    The document discusses the order of adjectives when used before a noun in English. It provides a chart showing the typical order: opinion, size, shape, condition, age, color, pattern, origin, material, purpose, noun. Adjectives relating to opinion generally come first. The order follows logical categories from abstract to concrete. Several examples demonstrate correctly ordering multiple adjectives according to these guidelines.

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    Adjectives-Word order

    An adjective is a word that describes something (a noun) or someone (a person).

    1. Adjectives sometimes appear after the verb To Be

     He is short.

     She is tall.

    2. Adjectives sometimes appear before a noun.

     Red car

     Old hat

    BUT… Sometimes you want to use more than one adjective to describe something (or
    someone).

    What happens if a hat is both old AND ugly?

    Do we say… an ugly old hat OR an old ugly hat?

    An ugly old hat is correct because a certain order for adjectives is expected
    (Note, you may hear the other version old ugly hat, though it doesn’t sound natural)

    So what is the correct order of adjectives when we put them before a noun or the thing they
    describe?

    Here is a chart that shows the main word order for adjectives in English:

    1.Opinion 2.Size 3.Shape 4.Conditio


    n

    5.Age 6.Colour 7.Pattern 8.Origin

    10.Purposee 11.Noun
    9.Material

    *Before adjectives + noun, we normally have a determiner:

    -a, an, the, my, your, her, this, those, some, etc.
    Types of Adjectives

    Before the adjectives you will normally have the Determiner.

    Determiner: The determiner tells us if the noun is singular or plural, definite or indefinite

     a, an, the, my, your, four, those, some etc

    And then we have the adjectives that refer to…

    Opinion: Explains what we think about something. This is usually our opinion, attitude or
    observations. These adjectives almost always come before all other adjectives.

     beautiful, boring, stupid, delicious, useful, lovely, comfortable

    Size: Tells us how big or small something is.

     big, small, tall, huge, tiny

    Shape / Weight / Length: Tells about the shape of something or how long or short it is. It
    can also refer to the weight of someone or something.

     round, square, circular, skinny, fat, heavy, straight, long, short,

    Condition: Tells us the general condition or state of something

     broken, cold, hot, wet, hungry, rich, easy, difficult, dirty

    Age: Tells us how old someone or something is.

     old, young, new, ancient, antique

    Colour: The colour or approximate colour of something.

     green, white, blue, reddish, purple

    Pattern: The pattern or design of something.

     striped, spotted, checked, flowery

    Origin: Tells us where something is from.

     American, British, Italian, eastern, Australian, Chilean

    Material: What is the thing made of or constructed of?

     gold, wooden, silk, paper, synthetic, cotton, woollen


    Purpose/Qualifier/Use: What is it for? These adjectives often end in –ing.

     sleeping (bag), gardening (gloves), shopping (bag), wedding (dress)

    If you look at the examples above, you can ask… what are the gloves used for? (gardening)
    What is the bag used for? (shopping)

    And after these we adjectives we have the…

    Noun: The person or thing that is being described

    Example: Bag, vase, chair, table,etc.

    Examples of the order of adjectives before a noun

    Something to have in mind is that it does not sound natural using three or more adjectives in
    the same sentence and it is very rare to hear four adjectives together before a noun.

     A big fat dog.

     An interesting old Indian rug.

     A striped silk shirt

     Some comfortable black sleeping bags

     Four small round wooden tables

     Those funny little old men


    Now choose the correct sentence:

     1:

    An ugly, green tie.

    A green, tie ugly.

    A green, ugly tie.

     2:

    A book, interesting old.

    An interesting, old book.

    An old, interesting book.

     3:

    A white, big, wooden table.

    A big, white, wooden table.

    A wooden, big, white table.

     4:
    An old, blue, tiny, bent, Swiss pen.

    A bent, tiny, old, blue, Swiss pen.

    A tiny, bent, old, blue, Swiss pen.

     5:

    My funny, tall, middle-aged, Italian husband.

    My tall, funny, middle-aged, Italian husband.

    My middle-aged, tall, Italian, funny, husband.

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