This document discusses the definition and positioning of adjectives in English sentences. It defines adjectives as words that describe or clarify nouns by providing information about attributes like size, shape, color, etc. It then discusses the typical order of multiple adjectives in English, with descriptors generally occurring before nouns in the order of quantity, quality, size, age, shape, color, origin, and purpose. The document provides examples of adjective ordering and exceptions where adjectives can follow nouns for emphasis. It concludes with an activity testing the reader's understanding of adjective ordering.

1. Grammar V
E r i k a A r g u e l l o
M a r i o S a l a z a r
S h i r l e y V á s q u e z
Position of adjectives in
a sentence
28– April - 2015

2. Adjectives
The simplest definition of an adjective is that it is a word that describes or clarifies a
noun. Adjectives describe nouns by giving some information about an object’s size,
shape, age, color, origin or material.
It’s a big table. (size)
It’s a round table. (shape)
It’s an old table. (age)
It’s a brown table. (color)
It’s an English table. (origin)
It’s a wooden table. (material)
It’s a lovely table. (opinion)
It’s a broken table. (observation)
It’s a coffee table. (purpose)
When an item is defined by its purpose, that word is usually not an adjective, but it acts
as one in that situation.
coffee table
pool hall
hunting cabin
baseball player
What Do Adjectives Look Like?
English can be very tricky, so you have to be careful, but a lot of English adjectives end
with these suffixes:
-Able/-ible – adorable, invisible, responsible, uncomfortable
-Al – educational, gradual, illegal, nocturnal, viral
-An – American, Mexican, urban

3. -ar – cellular, popular, spectacular, vulgar
-ent – intelligent, potent, silent, violent
-ful – harmful, powerful, tasteful, thoughtful
-ic/-ical – athletic, energetic, magical, scientific
-ine – bovine, canine, equine, feminine, masculine
-ile – agile, docile, fertile, virile
-ive – informative, native, talkative
-Less – careless, endless, homeless, timeless
-ous – cautious, dangerous, enormous, malodorous
-Some – awesome, handsome, lonesome, wholesome
Many adjectives also end with -y, -ary and -ate, but lots of nouns and adverbs also end
with -y, lots of nouns also end with -ary, and lots of nouns and verbs also end with -ate,
so be careful with those.
In many languages, adjectives denoting attributes usually occur in a specific order.
Generally, the adjective order in English is:
1. Quantity or number
2. Quality or opinion
3. Size
4. Age
5. Shape
6. Color
7. Proper adjective (often nationality, other place of origin, or material)
8. Purpose or qualifier
For example:
1. I love that really big old green antique car that always parked at the end of the
street.
2. My sister adopted a beautiful big white bulldog.
When there are two or more adjectives that are from the same group, the word andis
placed between the two adjectives:

4. 1. The house is green and red.
2. The library has old and new books.
When there are three or more adjectives from the same adjective group, place a comma
between each of the coordinate adjectives:
1. We live in the big green, white and red house at the end of the street.
2. My friend lost a red, black and white watch.
A comma is not placed between an adjective and the noun.
ORDER OF ADJECTIVES
Deter
miner
Qua
ntity
or
num
ber
Qual
ity
or
opin
ion
Si
ze
A
ge
Sha
pe
Co
lor
Prop
er
adjec
tive
Purp
ose
or
quali
fier
No
un
A
beau
tiful
ol
d
Italia
n
sport
s
car
The three
beau
tiful
lit
tle
gol
d
pla
tes
An
amaz
ing
hea
rt-
sha
ped
red
and
wh
ite
sof
a
More examples:
1. I love that really old big green antique car that always parked at the end of the
street. [quality - age - size - color - proper adjective]
2. My sister has a big, beautiful, tan and white, bulldog. [size - quality - color - color]
3. A wonderful old Italian clock. [opinion - age - origin]
4. A big square blue box. [dimension - shape - color]

5. 5. A disgusting pink plastic ornament. [opinion - color - material]
6. Some slim new French trousers. [dimension - age - origin]
7. A wonderful old Italian clock. [opinion - age - origin]
8. I bought a pair of black leather shoes. [color - material]
POSITION OF ADJECTIVES IN A SENTENCE.
When two or more adjectives come before a noun, they are usually separated by
commas.
A large, round table
A short, fair, pretty girl
Note that we do not put a comma after the last adjective in the series.
When the last two are adjectives of color, they are usually separated by and.
A black and white cow (NOT black white cow)
Red and blue socks
When two or more adjectives come in the predicative position, we use and between the
last two.
It was hot and sultry.
The boy was handsome, smart and polite.
The clouds looked white and fluffy.
Sometimes we put an adjective after the noun for the sake of emphasis.
There lived an old man strong and wicked. (More emphatic than ‘There lived a strong
and wicked old man.’)
In phrases such as those given below, the adjective always comes after the noun.
Time-immemorial
Heir-apparent
God Almighty

6. President elect
In lines of poetry, too, the adjective is sometimes put after the noun.
O men with sisters dear! (Instead of ‘O men with dear sisters’)
Linkography
http://www.english-for-students.com/Adjective-Position.html.
http://grammar.yourdictionary.com/parts-of-speech/adjectives/what-is-an-
adjective.html.
http://www.englishgrammar.org/position-adjectives/
http://www.gingersoftware.com/content/grammar-rules/adjectives/order-of-adjectives/

7. ACTIVITY
PUT THE ADJECTIVES IN ORDER:
 1) my teacher old math smelly.
Answer: My smellyoldmathteacher.
 2) new a perfect system.
Answer: A perfect new system.
 3) a big old brown bear.
A big old brown bear.
 4) He was wearing a dirty oldflannel shirt.
dirty old flannel
flannel old dirty
old dirty flannel
5) I used to drive an old blue German car.
a blue old German
an old German blue
an old blue German

8. Test
Name:
Level:
Complete the test about the position of the adjectives in a sentence.
Time: 5 minutes.
1. Write your own definition about an adjective.
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
2. Write 10 adjectives that you know.
___________________________________________________________________
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3. Underline the adjective:
The hot Sun beat down on us all day.
This product does not deserve this high price.
He asked me my present address.
4. Underline the adjective:
• It is the only treatment suitable.
• It is an offer available only to the club members.
5. Put in the correct order the following adjectives:
 Box – square - big - blue - a
_____________________________________
 Italian - clock - old - wonderful
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