Order of Adjectives

We can use most adjective in front of nouns to describe people and things after determiners and numbers.

• She had a beautiful smile.
• He bought a cup of black coffee.
• There were six new students in my class this year.

We often want to add more information to a noun, so we can use more than one adjective. We use this order for adjectives:

size → age → shape → colour →nationality → material

Adjectives belong to six main types, but it is unlikely to use all six types in the same sentence.

We don’t usually use more than three adjectives to describe a noun.

• The man was wearing an old black leather jacket.
• The house had a big red wooden door.
• He found an old round copper coin on the beach.

If we want to use an age adjective and a nationality adjective, we put the age adjective first.

• We met some young Spanish boys.
• I bought a new German car.

Similarly, a shape adjective normally comes before a colour adjective.

• I have a round green table in my bedroom.
• They carried the square white window frame into the house.

Note that material means any substance, not only cloth.

• The man left a large black plastic bag on the beach.
• The women wanted a large gold chain for her birthday.