English - Adjectival Order

 Order of adjective is the systematic arrangement of varying classes of adjectives that modify a noun. It is possible for a noun to be modified by more than one adjective. This is called cumulative adjectives. For example:

• The six round black tables
• Only beautiful old African ladies
• First four big northern cows

How then do we arrange such adjectives? There are a few suggestions in circulation in various media. Some differ in what should come first and next. It is observed that some suggest that age should come before shape.

Here the order is based the structure given by seasoned authorities like Randolph Quirk and Sidney Greenbaum in A University Grammar of English and Dele Ashade in A-Z of JAMB’s Use of English.

When ordering your adjectives, the determiners come first, followed by number (ordinal before cardinal). Then, opinion adjective which has the following objective epithets coming in the order of size, shape, age, colour, material and origin.

DNOS-SACMA

1. Determiners:

• Articles: a/an and the
• Pronoun: my, that, your

2. Number:

• Ordinal: first, second, third
• Cardinal: one, two, three

3. Opinion adjective:

• beautiful, gentle, unruly

4. Size:

• big, small, large

5. Shape:

• round, oval, rectangular

6. Age:

• ancient, new, current

7. Colour:

• scarlet, black, green

8. Material:

• wooden, plastic, metal

9. Origin:

• Italian, Nigerian, African

Test yourself with these questions

1. He put _________ in a basket.

A. a dozen white eggs

B. a white eggs dozen

C. a dozen eggs white

D. a white dozen eggs

2. The poor man was pleased to find _________ tyre.

A. a discarded rubber old

B. an old rubber discarded

C. an old discarded rubber

D. a rubber old discarded

3. The tourist bought _________.

A. a brown small Nigerian earthen pot

B. a small brown Nigerian earthen pot

C. an earthen small Nigerian pot

D. a Nigerian brown small earthen pot

4. Mrs Audu wept when she discovered that she had lost her _________ rings.

A. gold very expensive wedding

B. golden wedding very expensive

C. very expensive wedding gold

D. very expensive gold wedding

5. On his way back, the boy ran into a long procession of men, women and children in _________.

A. flowing exceedingly white beautiful gowns

B. white flowing exceedingly beautiful gowns

C. exceedingly beautiful white flowing gowns

D. white beautiful exceedingly flowing gowns

6. The first prize was _________ tray.

A. a wooden attractive carved

B. a carved wooden attractive

C. a carved attractive wooden

D. an attractive carved wooden

7. He recently married a ________ woman.

 

A. young beautiful Greek

B.  beautiful young Greek

C. beautiful Greek young

8. I used to drive ________ car.

 A. a blue old German

 B. an old German blue

 C. an old blue German

9. All the girls fell in love with the ________ teacher.

 A. handsome new American

 B. American new handsome

 C. new handsome American

10. He was wearing a ________ shirt.

 A. dirty old flannel

 B. flannel old dirty

 C. old dirty flannel

Answers:

1. A

2. C

3. B

4. C

5. C

6. D

7. A

8. C

9. A

10. A