17320 the order of adjectives

Name: _________________________________________________ Date:_____________________
Activity: Which is the correct order?
1

2

3

4

He goes out with___
A.
a small Canadian funny lady.
B.
a Canadian small funny lady.
C.
a small funny Canadian lady.
D.
a funny small Canadian lady.
I used _______________________ to cut the roast beef.
A.
a carving steel new knife
B.
a new steel carving knife
C.
a steel new carving knife
D.
a new carving steel knife
My uncle just bought ___________
A.
a beautiful blue sailing boat.

B.
a blue beautiful sailing boat.
C.
a sailing beautiful blue boat.
D.
a blue sailing beautiful boat.
I put ____________________________ in the garbage.
A.
B.
C.
D.

5

We went to the Bell Center and saw _____________________
A.
B.
C.
D.

6

an ugly red big plastic hat
an ugly big red plastic hat
a plastic ugly big red hat
a big ugly plastic red hat

My soup is in _________________________
A.
B.

C.
D.

8

an new French exciting band.
a French new exciting band.
an exciting French new band.
an exciting new French band.

She was wearing __________________ at the party.
A.
B.
C.
D.

7

an old wooden square table
a square wooden old table
an old square wooden table
a wooden old square table

a small Japanese serving bowl.
a Japanese small serving bowl.
a small serving Japanese bowl.
a serving small Japanese bowl.

Her husband was wearing __________________________
A.

B.
C.
D.

a long cotton dirty old tie.
a dirty long cotton old tie.
an old long cotton dirty tie
a dirty long old cotton tie.


Order of Adjectives
It is very common to use more than one adjective, there is a specific order.
1. Determiner and Quantifiers - a, an, her, five many, much several etc.
2. Opinion - pretty, ugly, smart, cheap, etc.
3. Size - big, fat, thin, tall, large, small etc.


4. Shape - circle, square, tall, etc.
5. Age - old, young 10 years, a year, a week, new etc.
6. Color - yellow, green, pink etc.
7. Origin - American, Asian, Middle Eastern, African, European, Chinese etc.
8. Material - cotton, wood, plastic, cloth, glass, gold etc.
9. Purpose - the reason that something is needed (ex: lunch box, sleeping bag)
Now you try, fill in the coloured boxes in numbers 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 with a determinant or quantifier
and three adjectives which correspond with the noun in the last column. Follow the examples, numbers
1 to 7.
1
2
3
4

He goes out with___
D. a funny small Canadian lady.
I used _______________________ to cut the roast beef.
B. a new steel carving knife
My uncle just bought ___________
A. a beautiful blue sailing boat.
I put ____________________________ in the garbage.

C. an old square wooden table
We wentOpinion
to the Bell Center
_____________________
5
Determiner
Size and saw
Shape
Age
Color

Quantifier
D. an exciting new French band.
Determiner
Opinion
Shape
Age
A
tallSize
She was wearing
__________________

at the party.
6
1 Quantifier
27 1
38 2
4 3
5 4
6 5
7 6
8 7
9 8
10 9
1110
1211

B. an ugly big red plastic hat
TheA
smalltall
new
My soup is in _________________________

Origine

red

Some
Many

bright

square

A
dirty
SomeThe answers
brightmay vary
ThisA
This
These

skinny

porcelain
bran

blue

porcelain

money
money
flower
flower

young

purse
building
muffins
purse

vases
muffins
markers
vases

French

catsboy

Persian

boxcats
lunch
cotton

socks
box
man
socks
Glasses
man

Italian
blue

Noun
building

boy
bedroom

red

round

Noun

bedroom
markers

old
short

purpose

French

gray

comfortable

practical

bran

young

huge

The

Materiel
brick

purpose

blue

lazy

My
Two

square
skinny

dirty

old

Materiel

brick

A.
Japanese serving
bowl.round
A few
The a small hot
small

new
Her husband was wearing __________________________
Many
old
AD.
fewa dirty longhot
round
old cotton tie.

Twelve
12

Color
red

Origine

plastic

glasses