Adjective Placement and Order

Attributive adjectives provide descriptive information about a certain characteristic of the person, place, or object, such as its appearance, color, shape, size, age, origin, etc. For example:

A predicative adjective (also called predicate adjective) follows a linking verb. They can take an adjective complement after them or appear alone. For example:

The order of adjectives is important when they are used consecutively without a comma (,) or 'and' separating them. When adjectives are separated by commas or 'and', the order becomes less important. However, when describing something or someone with multiple adjectives, the order in which they are placed is crucial.

The general rule for the order of adjectives before a noun is as follows:

Now let's look at an example. Note that it is not very common to use so many adjectives before a noun. This is just an example for you to see how this rule works:

Some adjectives describe a general opinion. We can use these adjectives to describe almost any noun.

Some adjectives describe a specific opinion. We only use these adjectives to describe particular kinds of nouns. For example, people, animals, food etc.

Usually, you put a general opinion before a specific opinion.

When we refer to the 'size' of a noun, we are describing its physical dimensions, such as how big or small it is, as well as its height, such as whether it is tall or short.
On the other hand, when we refer to the 'shape' of a noun, we are describing its physical form, such as whether it is round, oval, triangular, or another shape. Adjectives that describe shape can also include words that describe weight or length, such as long, fat, or heavy.

By 'purpose' we mean what the noun is used for.