Adjective before Noun

We often use more than one adjective before the noun:

  • I like big black dogs.
  • She was wearing a beautiful long red dress.

What is the correct order for two or more adjectives?

1. First of all, the general order is:

opinion, fact

"Opinion" is what you think about something. "Fact" is what is definitely true about something.

  • a lovely new dress (not a new lovely dress)
  • a boring French film (not a French boring film)

2. The "normal" order for fact adjectives is

other / size, shape, age, color / origin / material / purpose

  • a small 18th-century French coffee table
  • a rectangular black wooden box

3. Determiners usually come first, even though they are fact adjectives:

  • articles (a, the)
  • possessives (my, your...)
  • demonstratives (this, that...)
  • quantifiers (some, any, few, many...)
  • numbers (one, two, three)

Note that when we want to use two color adjectives, we join them with "and":

  • Many newspapers are black and white.
  • She was wearing a long, blue and yellow dress.

Here are some examples of adjective order:

adjectiveshead noun
determineropinion adjectivesfact adjectives
othersize, shape, age, colororiginmaterialpurpose*
twougly black  guarddogs
a well-known Chinese  artist
a  small, 18th-centuryFrench coffeetable
yourfabulous new  sportscar
alovely pink and greenThaisilk dress
some  blackSpanishleatherridingboots
a  big black and white   dog
this cheap  plasticraincoat
an  old woodenfishingboat
my  new  tennisracket
awonderful 15th-centuryArabic  poem
*often a noun used as an adjective

Useful Tip

Not all grammarians agree about the exact order of adjectives, and the detailed rules are complicated. The rules on this page are for the normal, "natural" order of adjectives. These rules are not rigid, and you may sometimes wish to change the order for emphasis. Consider the following conversations:

Conversation 1
A "I want to buy a round table."
B "Do you want a new round table or an old round table?"

Conversation 2
A "I want to buy an old table".
B "Do you want a round old table or a square old table?"