Sometimes we use two or more adjectives together:
- My brother lives in a nice new house.
- In the kitchen there was a beautiful large round wooden table.
Adjectives like new/large/round/wooden are fact adjectives. They give us factual information about age, size, colour etc.
Adjectives like nice/beautiful are opinion adjectives. They tell us what somebody thinks of something or somebody.
Opinion adjectives usually go before fact adjectives.
| opinion | fact | |
| a | nice | long | summer holiday |
| an | interesting
delicious | young
hot | man
vegetable soup |
| a | beautiful | large round wooden | table |
Sometimes we use two or more fact adjectives together. Usually (but not always) we put fact adjectives in this order:
(1) how big? → (2) how old? → (3) what colour? → (4) where from? → (5) what is it made of? NOUN
a tall young man (1 → 2)
big blue eyes (1 → 3)
a small black plastic bag (1 → 3 → 5)
a large wooden table (1 → 5)
an old Russian song (2 → 4)
an old white cotton shirt (2 → 3 → 5)
Adjectives of size and length (
big/
small/
tall/
short/
long etc.) usually go before adjectives of shape and width (
round/
fat/
thin/
slim/
wide etc.):
a large round table
a tall thin girl
a long narrow street
When there are two or more colour adjectives, we use
and:
a black and white dress
a red, white and green flag
This does not usually happen with other adjectives before a noun:
a
long black dress (
not a long and black dress)
We use adjectives after
be/
get/
become/
seem:
- Be careful!
- I'm tired and I'm getting hungry.
- As the film went on, it became more and more boring.
- Your friend seems very nice.
We also use adjectives to say how somebody/something looks, feels, sounds, tastes or smells:
- You look tired. / I feel tired. / She sounds tired.
- The dinner smells good.
- This tea tastes a bit strange.
But to say
how somebody
does something you must use an
adverb (see Units 100- 101):
- Drive carefully! (not Drive careful)
- Susan plays the piano very well. (not plays ... very good)
