The document outlines the typical order of adjectives in English which is: opinion, size, age, shape, color, origin, material, purpose. It provides examples of each type of adjective. It then gives examples of adjectives used correctly in order to modify nouns, such as "a wonderful old Italian clock" using opinion-age-origin order. Finally, it provides a quiz with 10 sentences where the reader must identify the correctly ordered adjectives.
2. An opinion adjective explains what you think about something (other people
Opinion may not agree with you).
For example: silly, beautiful, horrible, difficult
A size adjective, of course, tells you how big or small something is.
Size
For example: large, tiny, enormous, little
An age adjective tells you how young or old something or someone is.
Age
For example: ancient, new, young, old
A shape adjective describes the shape of something.
Shape
For example: square, round, flat, rectangular
A colour adjective, of course, describes the colour of something.
Colour
For example: blue, pink, reddish, grey
An origin adjective describes where something comes from.
Origin
For example: French, lunar, American, eastern, Greek
A material adjective describes what something is made from.
Material
For example: wooden, metal, cotton, paper
A purpose adjective describes what something is used for. These adjectives
Purpose often end with “-ing”.
For example: sleeping (as in “sleeping bag”), roasting (as in “roasting tin”)
3. O Here are some examples of nouns modified
with three adjectives in the correct order based
on the list above. Notice that the adjectives are
not separated by commas.
O A wonderful old Italian clock. (opinion - age -
origin)
O A big square blue box. (size - shape - color)
O A disgusting pink plastic ornament. (opinion -
color - material)
O Some slim new French trousers. (size - age -
origin)
4. 1. He wears a ________ shirt.
a. dirty old flannel
b. flannel old dirty
c. old dirty flannel
2. Pass me the ________ cups.
a. plastic big blue
b. big blue plastic
c. big plastic blue
3. All the girls fall in love with the ________ teacher.
a. handsome new American
b. American new handsome
c. new handsome American
4. I drive ________ car.
a. a blue old German
b. an old German blue
c. an old blue German
5. He recently married a ________ woman.
a. young beautiful Greek
b. beautiful young Greek
c. beautiful Greek young
5. 6. This is a ________ movie.
a. new Italian wonderful
b. wonderful Italian new
c. wonderful new Italian
7. She is a ________ supermodel.
a. beautiful slim Brazilian
b. Brazilian beautiful slim
c. slim Brazilian beautiful
8. It's in the ________ container.
a. large blue metal
b. blue large metal
c. blue metal large
9. He sits behind a ________ desk.
a. big wooden brown
b. big brown wooden
c. wooden big brown
10. She gives him a ________ vase.
a. small Egyptian black
b. black Egyptian small
c. small black Egyptian